Return of SilverBlade
by SilverBlade
Summary: Transformer Alternate Universe. SilverBlade returns to his home 'universe'.
1. Chapter 1

Return of SilverBlade

Chapter 1

It has been over 10,000 human years since the Predacons have conquered many planets inside many galaxies, including Earth's. These planets now live under the military dictatorship of the Predacon Empire. The Maximals were forced to leave Cybertron, and hide in their colonies located in a gas nebula, beyond Predacon detection.

A few star fighters and other Cybertronian ships are stationed at an impressive sized space station. Inside the station, a few Maximal soldiers busy themselves at various holographic computer controls, watching readouts on the holo-screens. Cliffjumper notices something on his screen.

"Springer! Sir! A transwarp portal is opening close to us. "

"How close, Cliffjumper?" Springer questioned as he walked out of a joining room

"The portal is opening within weapon range." Cliffjumper said in a panic

"Who ever it is, sure is taking a risk. Gold Bug, aim all weapons at the portal."

Gold Bug nods and taps a few commands at the computer: "All weapons aimed, sir."

"That's not a normal transwarp portal." Springer states as he watches the view screen "Any idea what it could be?" He said as he turns to WheelJack

WheelJack types frantically at the keyboard, looking at the results on the screen: "It isn't a transwarp portal. It is a trans-dimensional portal."

"Should I call for reinforcements?" Cliffjumper asked Springer

Suddenly, the com link began to beep and Springer walked over to the com station, and activated it. "This is Commander Springer of the Maximal military; state your name and destination"

"This is commander SilverBlade of the Maximal Forces. Why are you aiming at my ship?" The voice rang over the com line.

"Gold Bug, stand down all weapons. Cliffjumper, any free dock spaces?" Springer barked as the 2 Maximals type furiously at the computers.

"Landing Pad 47 is free, Springer" said Cliffjumper.

"Excellent. Silver, Landing pad 47 is open."

"Great, I'll see you in a few minutes" SilverBlade responded as he closed the link.

The Slash-II exits the portal as it closes. It soon heads off to the landing pads. Springer waits in the hallway. The doors open and SilverBlade walks through it.

"Welcome home, Silver, I'm sure you have lots to tell us." Springer said with delight in his voice.

Silver and Springer shake hands "Yes I do, I have enough research to keep our scientists busy for centuries." Silver said excitedly.

Springer smiled "Come, follow me"

SilverBlade nodded and followed Springer over to a set of doors which open when they approach. There are several chairs surrounding a large round table, and holoprojectors at each seat.

Kup was the first to speak "Welcome home lad." SilverBlade then responded with a smile in his voice "It's good to be home old timer."

Kup scowled. "Old timer?"

Rodimus spoke out, interrupting the two bots "Now's not the time gentlemen. Now, sit down please." SilverBlade and Kup sit down at chairs surrounding the table.

SilverBlade turned to Ultra Magnus "Now, why was I called here?"

Kup spoke sharply. "Hold your horsepower lad. Tell us where you were for the past 5000 years?"

"This may sound odd, but I was at Cybertron. Not one controlled by Predacons, but one that is under Maximal control." SilverBlade said with confidence.

"Impossible!" Rodimus retorted.

SilverBlade handed out data pads to the other Maximal commanders "Sensor readings, history, everything about that other Cybertron"

"Fascinating, but this will come later. Magnus, why don't you start?" Rodimus said as he turned to Magnus.

"Earlier this month, we sent out an encrypted transmission to the former members of the alliance to meet on Tatooine." Ultra Magnus said to SilverBlade

"No Predacon presence except for mining drones..." SilverBlade stated, understanding why Tatooine was chosen.

Ultra Magnus activated a holographic image of the planet above the table. "Precisely, we will enter on this side of the planet, away from any civilization" An area of the planet flashes red. "Then we will land here." The image zooms into an area of the planet, in between mountains. "Then, we will travel here" Ultra Magnus points to a different area of the planet.

SilverBlade blinks his optics. "But, there is nothing located there."

Ultra Magnus grins a little. "A cloaked building. Only we know the location."

"Then how do our allies get inside?" SilverBlade said in a confused tone.

"The computers have been programmed to uncloak the building when one of the allies arrives. But to any overhead satellite, it will only appear as normal ground." Ultra Magnus said to Silver.

SilverBlade grins "Excellent planning. When do we leave for Tatooine?"

"We leave tomorrow..." Rodimus stated.

"Good. I look forward to it." SilverBlade responded.

"Meeting adjourned everyone" Rodimus stated as he headed out of the room.

The commanders then filed out of the meeting room. SilverBlade went down the hallway in a different direction from the others. He then entered a set of doors, walking into a room where there are rows and rows of various weapons on the walls. He passes into a second set of doors, where he sees multiple replicators in the room and computers connected to each one. He heads over to Perceptor.

"I've been working on this for the past few years. I think this may work"

Perceptor jumped, startled by SilverBlade: "I will analyze the validity of this research." He took the disc from Silver's hands and slipped it into the computer. SilverBlade looked on a few of the screens "How long will this take?"

"The computer has to analyze the data completely before it can come to a conclusion."

SilverBlade blinked his eyes

Perceptor sighed "I do not know."

SilverBlade nodded "Inform me when the computer has finished" he walked out of the lab without waiting for a response from Perceptor.


	2. Chapter 2

Chapter 2

Inside of an impressive-sized shopping center on Earth, many hundreds of thousands of people busy their day going from store to store, buying things that they need for their every day life. One electronic store was particularly popular. A teen boy had suddenly bolted out of the store, carrying an object which he had obviously stolen

"Stop! Someone please stop that thief!" the store attendant yelled out in panic.

Predacon soldiers teleported right into the path of the thief. The thief then turned around and ran other way, trying to avoid being caught. The soldiers then ran after him. A sniper hovered above the crowd, aiming a rifle at the running thief. He fires and the thief goes down hard on his face. One of the Predacon soldiers on the ground picks up the thief, forcing his arms behind his back, and activating energon bindings on the wrists. He also had another energon binding on his torso, to completely secure his arms from moving around.

"He's just stunned. Take him to the cell." The main soldier bellowed to the others.  
"Yes sir." The other soldiers responded and carried the teen with ease, as he was knocked unconscious by the stun shot.

Back at the Predacon fortress on Cybertron, one of the Predacons enters Megatron's throne and bows.

"Ravage reporting for duty, Lord Megatron." The bowing Predacon said.  
"I just got this report from Earth, someone tried to rob an electronic store. This is disturbing news indeed. We give them everything: peace, security, replicators for food, and housing; and we have people stealing"  
"He will be dealt with promptly, I assure you"  
"What are we going to do about this defiant behavior, Ravage"  
"A thought has crossed my mind"  
"Speak up!" Megatron bellowed, his voice echoing throughout the fortress.  
"We arrest everyone in that city, and make them our slaves"  
"Hmm..." Megatron pondered. "I like that idea, but we need to show the entire empire that this will not be tolerated. On every planet, arrest everyone in the most populous cities and the surrounding area by 50 kilometers. Tell them that they are being arrested for not paying their taxes"  
"Arrest everyone, sir?" Ravage questioned.  
Megatron grinned "Yes, everyone. And also, prepare the 'prisoners' for slave work"  
Ravage salutes "Yes Megatron, sir!" He then walks out of the throne room.

Megatron's throne spins around, and a holographic screen appears in front of him.

"Firewing, what's the status on our missiles?"

A tall and red colored Predacon appears on the screen "The missiles are ready, my lord. The launchers are being built as we speak. We should be able to fire them within a week, sire."

The Predacon Emperor made his face into a grin "These would make any galaxy bow down to me."

On the planet Kronos (Klingon home world), Predacon vessels fly overhead. Some large carriers are on the ground, while a large number of soldiers are leading Klingons into the carriers. A group of Klingons carrying their disruptors charge at the Predacon soldiers. Only to be killed off swiftly and heartlessly by the Predacon soldiers.

On various screens around the galaxy, the same message plays. Ravage speaks to the 'camera' "By order of the Predacon Empire, the civilians in these cities are under arrest for tax evasion. Failure to follow the directions of the Predacon soldiers in these cities will be punished by death, resistance will be punished by death, insulting will be punished by death." The names of the cities appear in a list on the screen beside Ravage's image in a split-screen fashion.

The same thing happens on all of the other planets, Predacon carriers come in, and soldiers escort the population into them, and leave. The various cities inside the Predacon Empire became barren in a matter of hours. The inside of the carrier looks like a passenger plane and the citizens are led to metal chairs, their hands are cuffed in the air suspended by their wrists, and their legs are cuffed to the floor by their ankles.

Thundercracker roams the isles, smirking at the captives. "Any outbursts will be punishable by intense electric shocks, so keep your filthy mouths shut for the remainder of the trip."

The passengers very quickly become silent, afraid of what might happen if they even whisper.

On Cybertron, in a very large building, hundreds of thousands of prisoners are watched over by their Predacon captors. A large purple Predacon with one optic as his face appeared on the many screens in the room. "This is Shockwave, Predacon General. I will only say this once. All males and females will separate. Males will go to the door on the left side, females to the right. You have 5 minutes or you will be forced to." The prisoners begin to embrace their loved ones in teary hugs.

After the 5 minutes have passed, the Predacon overseers begin to tear the embracing couples apart, hearing screams, threats and panicky yells from the people. Yet the Predacons heartlessly rip apart couples and families, leading the genders to their respective doors.

The camera then shows Shockwave standing at a window, looking out into the large room as the people clear out. He turns to a long line of Seekers." You go to the male's area and prepare them for slave work." They salute and march out of the room. Shockwave then turns to another group of Predacons "And you…go to the female area, you know what to do." The group of Predacons grins at each other and walk out.

In the large room where all of the men are, they are all standing in multiple lines, each man is receiving several pieces of equipment to assist them in their future life as a slave. One particular man tries to run towards the door, only to be cruelly shot dead by a Predacon soldier guarding the door. The body is immediately teleported away.

Starscream speaks out "Tomorrow is the first day in your life as a slave, and you will remain a slave until we feel that you should be free to go, or if you die. Bribing us will not work, and you will be shot dead of you do so. Remember this as well, as slaves you have no rights. You will be fed the minimum amount your body needs and no more. You will sleep no more then 6 hours per day, and will only receive 30 minutes for eating, every 6 hours of work. Any refusal to do work will be punished by death. One mistake and you are killed. You are easily replaced, so don't give us any opportunity to kill you, because we will."

The prisoners are then led down various hallways. As they pass by a door down a hallway, they see inside, the original thief from the shopping mall on earth, strapped down in an examination chair. A Predacon soldier stands at the door to guard it, while a Predacon scientist pokes the arm of the thief with a needle and injects a green liquid into the body. The scientist says in a cold hearted manner "Pain is all you will know, you won't know pleasure, hunger, or fear, just the pain of 1000 needles being jammed into you over and over. You won't even feel the need to sleep. Just intense pain." He looks towards the guard "He is ready to be taken to Megatron's throne room" The guard grins and walks over to the chair as the human is being untied, and pushes him down the hallways, forcing him to walk while feeling intense sharp pain with every motion of his body.

The camera now shows a room full of women with the Predacon soldiers along the walls, watch over the crowd as they talk and console each other. Some women are taking this situation well, while others are crying their eyes out, calling for their husband or boyfriend, wanting to be with them.

This time, however, the Predacon Thundercracker appears on the screen "Listen up, and listen well. From this day onward, your duties will be only to please your Predacon master. You will do what he or she asks without question. Your master may punish you how they see fit if you do not do as they wish. You have no rights as of this moment. You will be fed what your body needs, no more, and you will sleep 6 hours per night, no more. We will not hesitate to kill you if you do not do as we ask, so don't give us the opportunity. Now, that being said, the Predacon soldiers want to see their new slaves completely, so strip now, you have 5 minutes to do so. If not, your clothing will be teleported off of you."

The women in the room began to strip off their clothing right away. Some of them get it done quickly, others are slow and others refuse to do it at all. A few of them strip completely, but others leave their lingerie on, having a faint hope that the Predacons will let them keep it. The 5 minutes are up and Thundercracker looks over to the crowd "hmm I see some of you have trouble listening to directions, we will just have to fix that" He grinned as he tapped his holographic wrist computer, causing the remaining clothing to be teleported off the ladies. They immediately use their hands for cover, but Thundercracker grinned. "No covering!" He yelled, and the ladies put their hands at their sides, having no choice but to show the cruel bots their unclothed bodies. Thundercracker speaks again. "That was a warning. You will not cover up any part of your body regardless of who sees you. You are a slave, and you are the property of your master. He will show you to whoever he wants to and you will not hesitate or cover up"  
He grins at the crowd. "Now, the Predacons will be called up one by one to choose their slave." One by one, other Predacon forces are called and they walk up to the crowd of nude women and select their personal slave. Some women leave in tears, others just take the embarrassment, knowing they can't do anything about it.

The camera shows Shockwave again, in the room above the crowd and looks towards a floating monitor near him, reading reports of other facilities from across the empire "400 million prisoners, that will increase our output of raw materials substantially"

Scurge walks into the room. "Why use humans for mining when the holo-drones are far superior?"

Shockwave looks over to Scurge, annoyed. "Because we can, that's why"

The male slaves are loaded onto massive Predacon carriers. Each carrier lifts off from the Cybertronian surface and travel to various planets around the galaxy. Once the slaves are unloaded from the Predacon carriers, the head slave-master speaks out: "You are now slaves of the Predacon Empire, and as such, you have no rights, no privileges and no privacy. The only way to escape slavery is death. Your children will be born into slavery and they will die while being enslaved. Now that has been said, begin your work." With that, the slaves are put to their tasks under the supervision of the Predacon overseers. 


	3. Chapter 3

Chapter 3

A shuttle with the Maximal insignia lands in a massive desert on the planet of Tatooine. The door to the shuttle dissolves into a liquid them re-forms into a set of stairs leading to the ground. The occupants: SilverBlade, Ultra Magnus and Rodimus Prime, exit the shuttle and walk out to the desert. Rodimus Prime tapped a button on his holographic wrist computer "We're outside" he says to his wrist. The 3 Maximals see the building decloak, and walk inside. The building cloaks again.

Once inside, the Maximals are led to a large room. Each planet's representatives are seated in a way that everyone can see the main speaker, and each spot has a holographic projector so that the viewer can see the speaker up close without being physically close to the speaker.

As the crowd settles down into their seats and gradually stops talking, they all move their eyes to the center of the room when a middle-aged female woman stands up and begins to speak.

"We have learned that the Predacon Empire is secretly building a new brand of long range missile. It is called the Sun Crusher missile." The hologram image shows off statistical information on the weapon, while the image is rotating. "Each missile has the explosive power to destroy an area that is 4 times bigger then the planet Jupiter in the Terran Solar system" The hologram changes images to an animation of the missile destroying a planet, with technical and statistical information. "Many Humans, Klingons, Vulcans, Protoss and Necromonger spies lost their lives to deliver this information."

One of the ambassadors to the Klingons stands up, and speaks. "Why wasn't there any Maximal involvement? Or have they become afraid of their own cousins more then the rest of us? The blood of those were spilled, they sit and do nothing!"

The middle-aged woman responds. "The Maximals were not asked to become involved because the Predacons would have known that this secret alliance exists is attempting to destroy them. They see us 'organic' races as no threat to them, and we intend to keep it that way." She pauses for a minute. "The Predacon Empire must be stopped from completing these missiles. If they do, it would mean they can force any planet, anywhere to bow to them, or face annihilation."

The Ambassador to Earth, Jean-Luc Picard (ok, I couldn't find a name that most people would know, bare with it: P) stood up from his seat "The forces of earth will be a part of this campaign". One by one, the Senators from the different planets rose to their feet, showing their support and willingness to participate in this course of action.

SilverBlade rose to his feet "The Maximals will lead this campaign against the Predacons."

The middle-aged women on the stage looked around at the standing senators. "Then the decision to go to war has been decided. I now ask that the military generals meet in the War Room, to discuss a strategy"

On the planet Cardassia, armed Predacon soldiers are patrolling the city, walking by the citizens of the planet, and interviewing random people as they walk by. In the main government buildings, the Predacon insignias are on every pillar and every wall, to show that they have complete control of the planet. Inside one of the main buildings, Soundwave, one of the Predacon generals is looking over the various monitors, making sure everything is going smoothly.

Ravage's face appears on a monitor, speaking in that famous Russian accent "General Soundwave, the holo-projection production facility has been destroyed by Cardassian soldiers."

Soundwave glares over to Ravage's monitor. "Arrest the soldiers, execute them"

"That has been done. Any Cardassian within 1000 feet was executed" Ravage said with a grin.

"Excellent, this will be reported to Megatron." Ravage's face disappears, and is replaced by Megatron's face.

"I have news, Megatron: the facility on Cardassia has been destroyed."

Megatron's eyes light up "So, they took the bait. Soundwave, kill everyone on the planet. Take no prisoners. Even women and children, kill everyone."

Soundwave salutes as Megatron's face vanishes, and he taps a few keys on the control board.

The camera changes to an above view of the Cardassian capital city. Hundreds, if not thousands of Predacon Seeker and Swoops appear in the sky, and begin to fire down at the city. Predacon ground troops also appear and open fire on the citizens. They scream and run, but sooner or later, they are heartlessly killed. They only avoid the buildings in which the Predacons have high-ranking members in, all others are fired at.

Picard is standing on the stage, talking about the tasks that lie ahead.

"The planet of Cybertron is protected by multiple complex shield generators. SilverBlade will explain."

SilverBlade walks to the center of the room, taps some keys on his holo-wrist computer and a 3D holographic image of a circular disc-like device appears.

"This is what is protecting Cybertron. There are about 5,000 in orbit around the planet. Each one is has an internal cloaking device, along with a shield generator of its own. When one of these gets hit, they send a high powered burst of electrical energy, along with its neighbors at the attacking vessel, disabling it." The animation plays of what Silver was explaining. "Also, when one of these is destroyed, each of the generators surrounding the planet moves wider apart so that the whole planet is protected again. But, this also makes the shield weaker all around, as the energy is directed towards distance, not strength."

Gul Du-Kat, from Cardassia shouts out "Then how do we disable it?"

"I will take a team of scientists down in a Predacon vessel which was abandoned on one of the planets along the outer ring of the Empire. It was rebuilt and is set to transmit standard Predacon codes. Once there, we will disable the facilities which transmit energy to the orbiting generators."

"What will the rest of us do?" A Protoss member calls out to SilverBlade.

"The rest of the fleet will fight the Predacon holo-drones." SilverBlade explains, but then is interrupted by the Klingon general.

Martok: "Great strategy, you forgot to mention that we can not damage those drones, and they multiply at an impressive rate, the attack will be over before it begins"

SilverBlade shakes his head slightly. "Before I was interrupted, I was going to explain how the scientists that will join me will also have the task of venturing into the depths of Cybertron to access the computers which control them. Once they hack the system, we can bring them into our control. Also, we have taken the model which the Predacon Empire uses, each holo-projector destroyed will be replicated by its neighbor, for an unending supply of soldiers. Our modifications to your unmanned carriers would allow the drones the self-replicate, meaning as one is destroyed, and 2 more are produced. And if the carries themselves get destroyed, another carrier would replicate it twice. This is the only way we have even the slightest chance."

The other generals in the room look at each other, and talk among themselves, eventually coming up with an answer.

The Protoss general stands up. "If our leaders will allow it, we agree to the modifications."

SilverBlade smiled under his faceplate "Then I will pitch the idea."

Suddenly, various monitors inside the meeting rooms show a news report

"_Just hours ago, the Predacon fleet and its troops destroyed Cardassia, killing everyone and leveling buildings. This comes after a Predacon production facility on the planet was destroyed by Cardassian insurgents" _Th_e_ camera shows smoking buildings, flames everywhere, and dead bodies lying on the ground while ground troops comb the streets and the Predacon fighters fly overhead, shooting down the remaining Cardassian ships.


	4. Chapter 4

**Chapter 4**

As the newscast comes to an end, everyone in the room falls silent; all that is heard is the hum of computers in the background and the occasional beeping from the computers.

Gul Du-Kat softly says "Everyone? Gone?" Almost in disbelief, that his entire planet's population was executed so heartlessly.

Rodimus looked over to some of his staff "We need a confirmation on this now, get to the communication center and find out!" The other Maximals salute and run off down the hallways. A few minutes later, Rodimus hears a beep on his communicator; he taps it "Yes?"

"We had the spies along Cardassia report that everything in the newscast is true, there is not one living Cardassian left on the planet, and others not on the planet are being hunted and executed as well. Then we lost the transmission..."

"Wonderful." says Rodimus in a sarcastic as he looks over to Gul Du-Kat who is sitting down at his seat.

"I can't fight with my military destroyed" Du-Kat says dejectedly.

"Nonetheless, we will continue the plans to invade Cybertron!" The Klingon Martok shouts out and the other leaders follow with agreements.

"Then it is time to prepare for war. The Maximal scientists have studied the layouts of your unmanned attack carriers, and are recommending some changes to them. The exact specifications have been transferred to your computers at your seats. I suggest you take these to your engineers and begin to produce these modified carriers. Out of every scenario that has been studied, this is by far the best one." SilverBlade states very coldly and almost in a commanding way.

The other leaders read over the layouts on their computer, and talking with their fellow staff about it. The leaders nod in agreement. They send the plans to their home planets so the engineers could begin to work on them.

Ultra Magnus turns to Rodimus. "What if this doesn't work, Rodimus?"

"It will work, Magnus" Rodimus says with an optimistic tone to his voice. "There may be heavy losses in this alliance, but we will defeat the Predacon Empire."

Ultra Magnus nods and looks over to Du-Kat ""After this war is over and we have defeated them, the Maximals will re-populate Cardassia, as well as every other planet that has lost life."

Du-Kat looks back "I will fight the Predacons until I breathe my last breath"

SilverBlade looks around, then to the middle-aged women from before. The woman then stands in the middle of the room "If there is no further business to conduct, then this meeting is adjourned. Good luck in the fight. We all could use it."

With that, the group of leaders exits the room. The members enter their respective vessels and travel back to their home planets.

On board the Maximal vessel, Rodimus taps a sequence of keys, and Cliffjumper appears on the screen. "Cliffjumper; tell Kup to send out engineers to our allies, all of them. They will assist in constructing their new vessels." "Yes Sir!" Cliffjumper salutes and his image fades off the screen.

Once the Maximal commanders have docked on their space station, SilverBlade immediately exits the transport and heads towards the command room. He looks out the windows to see the smaller transports detaching from the docking rings, carrying the engineers to their fellow allies. He also says a little prayer "Dear Primus, let us succeed, I'll sacrifice myself to let this victory happen."

In the Predacon command center, Firewing is talking with Kai Winn on the view screen, while other Predacon officers are busy at their stations.

"This is your last chance, Kai, denounce your faith in the Prophets and tell the planet of Bajor to do the same. " Firewing says to Kai Winn.

"I will do no such thing!" she responds back. "This planet was founded on the bases of that religion and I will not tell my people to follow the religion of machines!"

"Better start praying to your false gods now, Kai" Firewing says then shuts off the screen. "Dinobot, aim set five sun crusher missiles to Bajor's coordinates" Firewing shouts. "Yes Sir!" Dinobot grins widely as he taps the command into the computer.

The camera shows a large field of large missile turrets. 5 missiles slide up from the ground until the nose is above the ground.

Firewing looks over to Dinobot "When you're ready, Dinobot".

Dinobot grins widely again, and taps in the command to launch them. Firewing looks at the view screen to watch the missiles lunch into the Cybertronian sky. Once the missiles exit Cybertron space, electricity begins to form in a half-dome in front of them. A portal begins to open up in front of the missiles, and the missiles enter it.

"In just a few minutes, Bajor will be nothing but an asteroid belt." Firewing says coldly.

The camera shows part of the planet Bajor from above. Several transwarp portals open above the planet, and each missile heads towards the surface at great speeds.

In the major cities of Bajor, the citizens look up to the sky when they see multiple fireball-like objects. When the missiles hit, massive energy shockwaves are sent out from the point of impact, destroying the buildings, houses and causing the civilians to be thrown to the ground or against the side of buildings. Next, the ground begins to burst from the point of impact and outwards, the debris being thrown into the sky. The whole planet breaks apart in a huge explosion, sending rocks, dirt, and pieces of bodies in every direction.

On the Maximal Space station, the alarm rings very loudly.

SilverBlade runs into the command center "What's the situation, Gold Bug?" Rodimus and Ultra Magnus arrive right behind SilverBlade.

Gold Bug taps some commands into the computer "I don't know sir, a protoss scout ship reported having detected a massive explosion with Bajorian space, and then we lost contact."

SilverBlade looks to the other commanders, then back to Gold Bug. "Keep trying to re-establish communication with them."

The other Maximals in the command center frantically tap at the holo-controls, in an attempt to reconnect with their allies. Suddenly the main view screen flickers to life, showing some Protoss officers. "The radiation from the explosion must have had too much interference for the communication to get through. We did a long-range scan of the explosion. It was the planet Bajor. The planet is gone. "

Rodimus blinks and heads over to Gold Bug "Contact the nearest vessel in the Bajorian sector besides the Protoss and request them to scan for the planet, this has to be confirmed before we take any action."

Gold Bug nods and begins to type in the commands "The closest vessel to the Bajorian sector is one from Naboo."

"Contact them" Commands Rodimus and Gold Bug types in more commands "This is Gold Bug from the Maximal Headquarters, we are requesting that you scan the Bajorian sector for any signs of an explosion. A Protoss vessel detected an explosion and we need confirmation."

"This is the scout vessel 098 of the Naboo Royal space fleet, Please stand by while we scan the area" Replied the Naboo vessel.

"Acknowledged scout vessel 098. Awaiting your reply on the status of the planet Bajor" Gold bug replied into the com system.

After a few minutes of waiting, the view screen flickers on "This is the Naboo vessel 098 from the Royal Space fleet, we have scanned the area of what was the planet Bajor. Here is what we found" The view screen changes to show a rapidly moving asteroid field. "We are afraid that the planet is now gone. Scans show residual signs of a mammoth multiple explosions where the planet once was." "Thank you for your time" replies Rodimus. The screen shuts off and changes to the view of various shuttles docking and undocking. He looks to the crew.

SilverBlade looks over to Rodimus "They must have finished those sun crusher missiles..." "How do you know? It could have been a space anomaly or a small supernova." "Because..." SilverBlade begins. "They are using a design I made before I was reprogrammed. I never finished the design of those missiles. They must have found my research and completed it."

"You mean those blueprints were locked for over 7000 years?" Rodimus questioned the other Maximal commander. "Yes sir. The code was never meant to be cracked…of course they had 7000 years to do so." SilverBlade replied to his superior.

"If they ever find us..." Rodimus began when Ultra Magnus continued it "We would be destroyed. The Maximals will have lost"

Kup then speaks up as he enters. "And with it, all hope"

The Predacon fortress sits on Cybertron's surface. It is the largest, biggest, and most fortified building in the Predacon Empire. The edge of the rooftop is lined with large automatic gun sentries, with a Predacon soldier about ever 30 feet on the roof holding an energy rifle.

There are also a few dozen Predacon soldiers on the ground in a patrolling pattern. Predacon pyramid fighters also fly overhead occasionally on air patrol around the capitol building of Cybertron.

Hundreds Predacon soldiers walk along the inner halls of the fortress conversing with one another. Every 30 feet, and 10 feet high up, victims are chained to the wall with tubes filled with various liquids, running in and out of their bodies. A constant moan of pain fills the hallways from these victims, forced to be decorations for the amusement of the Predacon leader, Megatron.

In Megatron's throne room, a young Bajorian woman, around the age of 23, is performing a strip show, for his enjoyment. A monitor screen fades into view above Megatron's throne, where he is sitting. Firewing is seen on the screen "My lord Megatron, the sun crusher missiles worked. The planet Bajor is destroyed. Only an asteroid field remains."

Megatron cackles at the news from his second in command and looks to the woman, who begins to shed tears "I didn't say to stop, slave, and continue until I am bored with you." With that, the woman continues to dance, although crying and sniffing throughout her dance.


	5. Chapter 5

Chapter 5

A period of 3 months has passed since the planet of Bajor was destroyed by the heartless Predacons.

On many of the Predacon-controlled worlds, the Predacon soldiers oversee the construction of multiple launching platforms for their newly developed Sun Crusher missiles. Each platform would span many miles, and would be capable of launching 20 missiles at once, each with transwarp capabilities on it. These launching platforms have also been constructed by the millions of individuals which the Predacons have enslaved from the planets they conquered.

Inside the Predacon fortress on Cybertron, a tall, blue Predacon approaches Megatron's throne, and speaks in a monotonous tone. "Every Cardassian within the empire has been accounted for and executed, Lord Megatron. Except for one group."

"Who would that be, Soundwave?" Lord Megatron responded.

Soundwave walks over to the throne, and hands him a datapad. "Ahh", smirks Megatron. "Gul Dukat and a few members of the former Obsidian order."

"He wasn't present on Cardassia. Soldiers have been hunting for him since." replied Soundwave in his ever-famous monotone voice.

"Find him, and when you do, bring him to me, along with his countrymen." the Predacon leader states coldly.

Soundwave salutes and walks out of the throne room.

Inside the main Maximal Headquarters, a large manufacturing stage is on the way. Their replicators are working overtime, replicating the many thousands of parts needed for star fighters and battleships. Once the parts are fully replicated, energy beam latch onto the various parts and places them together to form the final product. Each replication bay is occupied all the time by a spacecraft being constructed. Each vessel is constantly engulfed in multiple beams of energy, and rotating in all directions as the vessel is being completed.

Inside the station, Wheeljack and Ultra Magnus watch over the events.

"It sure was a brilliant idea Wheeljack"

"We expanded the replication technology from producing metal panels to building the vessel itself. It took the engineers about 60 human years to figure out how to do that."

"Keep up the process; we need every ship we can get. We also need crews to fill them as well."

"Rodimus is arranging crews for the fleet. Once we have every single Maximal assigned to a vessel, the replication bays will begin to produce unmanned vessels."

"Make sure they have the most advanced form of intelligence, I want the unmanned fighters to be just as good as piloted fighters"

Wheeljack nods.

"Also, build the carriers, the ones which replicate more unmanned fighters when one is destroyed. This will be an all-or-nothing campaign" Ultra Magnus commanded.

"I agree that it is time to end the Predacon rule now" responded Wheeljack.

Ultra Magnus leaves Wheeljack and ventures into a corridor, and then he turns at a doorway labeled "Armor fitting room". The door dissolves like a liquid and after he walks through the door the liquid rises from the ground and re-forms into the door. He now stands on a platform overlooking a large room. There are CR chambers set ever 10 feet apart, and maximal soldiers enter and exit the chambers at random.

Ultra Magnus approaches SilverBlade, who is at desk with multiple holographic screens, each screen showing the activity inside the chambers.

"The engineers did an excellent job. They modified the CR chambers to not only repair damaged parts, but to also fuse the new type of armor onto the soldier inside." SilverBlade says to Magnus without looking at him.

"Remind me"

"This armor has a shield generator built right in, and if that fails, the armor itself can be 'healed'. The armor is regenerated by the spark energy residing in each maximal. Their onboard computer activates the healing system. The wound fills in with energy, and that energy repairs the damaged parts, and forms new parts when and where it is needed." SilverBlade explained.

"Keep up the work, Silver. We need every Maximal capable of fighting as soon as possible."

"When are we going to launch?"

"Rodimus has yet to decide. A safe bet would be within 2 earth weeks."

"Most of the Maximals will be ready by then." SilverBlade says with confidence.

"Make sure they are…" Ultra Magnus states as he leaves the room.

Magnus walks along the corridor and enters another room. He finds the other Maximal commanders there, including Rhinox and Primal.

"We can't allow the organic races to be part of this no matter how many ships they have!" shouted Rhinox.

"They have just as much to gain from our victory as we do! And there are more organic slaves under the Predacon command then robotic slaves! We must let them be part of it to free their own kind!" Kup retorted.

"Their bodies can't stand the amount of punishment that we can, one shot and their down. We can take hundreds and keep on going." Rhinox says glaring at Kup.

"Quiet you two!" Rodimus interrupts them. "You both are right, but because they're representatives in the senate have stated they will be a part of this invasion on Cybertron, we can't deny that right to them."

"What would happen if one member flips his decision, and refuses to go to war?" Optimus Primal questions Rodimus.

Rodimus sighs heavily. "Then we have one less race to go to war with, plain and simple. We will offer the humanoid races the use of our exosuits. They are built with the same armor that Commander SilverBlade has developed."

"That could be tens of thousands of potential exosuits, we don't have the resources or time to produce that many." Rhinox states, with a hint of worry in his voice.

"Each race has been given the data tracks to replicate their own exosuits." Ultra Magnus says to the others. "Also, every maximal must report to the armor fitting room to get the new armor fused onto them. That includes us commanders. We need to be on the battlefield as well, and any amount of protection we have will help."

"When can we expect the other fleets to arrive?" Rodimus tilts his head, looking at Magnus.

"If all goes to plan, we will have every fleet here within 2 weeks."

"We need to come up with some strategies of our own and fast." says Rodimus, in a rushed manner.

"That is true. I will begin to formulate a plan today." A confident Primal states and leaves the room.

"Meeting adjourned, for now." Rodimus sighs and heads out, followed by the others.

The camera shows a Predacon space cruiser, and then it shows inside, where multiple Predacons are on the various consoles, with Terrorsaur in the Captain's chair.

"Terrorsaur, we found the missing Cardassians" Ramjet calls out

"Excellent, contact Megatron on Cybertron"

The back of Megatron's head appears on the screen

"Lord Megatron?"

Megatron swivels around on his chair to face the screen "Report, Terrorsaur." he says in a commanding manner

"The surviving Cardassians has been spotted Lord Megatron. Should I kill them?"

"No. Bring them to me so I may deal with them personally."

"But Megatron…!" Terrorsaur began to protest, only to be interrupted by Megatron.

"You will bring him to me unharmed or your fate will be the same as his!"

"Yes, your highness." Terrorsaur says in defeat.

The screen shuts off to show the Cardassian vessel.

"Black Arachnia, target the engines and fire to disable them."

Black Arachnia types at the console and looks at the screen. 2 shots strike the Cardassian vessel's engines. "Direct hit, they are dead in the water."

"Excellent." says Terrorsaur. "Teleport the Cardassians to the brig and lock onto the vessel with a tractor beam. We're going to haul it back to Cybertron."

"Aren't you going to destroy it?" Black Arachnia questions Terrorsaur.

"Why destroy something when we can still use its material? Plus that vessel has a warp reactor inside of it. Cybertron is constantly low on energy and every bit counts." Terrorsaur says to Black Arachnia.

"As you wish, Needle nose." Black Arachnia says with a hint of reluctance as the Cardassian vessel is engulfed by the tractor beam. The Predacon vessel then turns around, and heads for Cybertron.


	6. Chapter 6

Chapter 6

In a large room, several of the Maximal leaders and military generals sit around a table, except for SilverBlade. Each Maximal has a data pad in front of them, and Rodimus sits at the head of the table.

"This had better be important, Magnus. We do have war to prepare for, incase you forgot."

Ultra Magnus looks to the others in the room. "I apologize for taking you away from your duties; I promise I won't be too long. I called this meeting because I don't think we should trust any forces to SilverBlade's command. I don't even think we should trust him to fight for us, or trust the new armor he is fusing into our soldiers."

Kup looks over to Magnus and asks: "Why do you not trust the lad?"

"He used to work for the Predacons!" Magnus raised his voice. "He was built specifically hunt down Maximals beyond the reach of the Predacon Holo-drones. How do we know we can trust him? His 'new armor' could just be a waste of our resources and may fail in the battlefield."

"He has proven himself to be a valuable member of the Maximals, and he has given us blueprints of nearly every major building on Cybertron." Optimus Primal says as he looks over to Ultra Magnus.

Rodimus responds with: "He was re-programmed into a Maximal before he was lost in a transwarp conduit. He proved to us then that he as much a Maximal as any of us are. Granted, his personality, his fighting style and instincts are that much like a Predacon, but his intentions are clear, and they are to destroy Megatron, at all costs."

"What about his past history? What about the many hundreds, perhaps thousands of lives he took, and the children had to watch their parents be slaughtered? Doesn't that say anything about his lack of regard for life? As you said, he fights like a Predacon and can act as a Predacon at times." Magnus shot back at Rodimus.

"SilverBlade hates Megatron, just like the rest of us…" Began Kup before Magnus interrupted. "That could be all an act! How do we know that's not part of Megatron's plans, to have a mole within the Maximal ranks and to sabotage our plans?"

"We would have detected any outgoing communications to Cybertron if Silver tried to make any to report what was happening. There would be no way he could communicate to Megatron without us knowing." Rodimus says to Magnus. "As Maximal leader at this time, I will allow SilverBlade to command the forces he has requested."

"May I ask, what is his role in this invasion?" Magnus asks in an irritable manner.

"That is none of your concern, Magnus…"

"But I need to know where my men are! You can't expect me to command troops if I have no idea where they are!" Ultra Magnus bursts out.

"SilverBlade's movements won't be any concern to you. Neither will the troops he will be commanding. You just worry about your own troops, Magnus. Now, is there any other business to discuss?" Rodimus asks the group.

"I have a question," responded Kup. "The organic races, what are their roles?"

"Each race will provide manned and unmanned fighters for air and space support, and also provide troops to fight on the ground." Rodimus responds to Kup.

Ultra Magnus looks to the others "What about projected losses?"

"Seventy four percent, minimum." Rodimus sighs heavily "I know it looks grim, but what choice do we have? This is an all-or-nothing campaign. We must succeed, at all costs."

"There is no way to lower those numbers?" questions Ultra Magnus.

"From every scenario we tried, that is the lowest we could get." Rodimus responded.

"What about events which could happen in our favor, even if it has the most miniscule chance of happening?" Springer asks Rodimus.

"We calculated everything that can happen within logic. Seventy four percent is the lowest number we have." Rodimus said with a heavy sigh in his voice.

"Most of the organic races will be here within two days. We should get ready to go" Says Springer.

Rodimus nods "All of the troops are ready with the new armor. The unmanned fighters are waiting, and the manned ships are ready to be boarded. We dock the ships when they arrive. Meeting adjourned."

The Maximal elders exit the meeting room one by one silently.

At the spaceport on Cybertron, a Predacon vessel finishes its docking procedure. Two lines of Predacon soldiers march up to the vessel on the walkway, and stop. The doors to the vessel vanish. Gul Du-kat and other Cardassians walk out, with their hands in energon bindings, and an energon chain connecting the Cardassians to each other. Off in the distance, A Predacon cruiser carries the Cardassian vessel.

Black Arachnia leads the prisoners down the walk way; Terrorsaur is at the end of the line with crewmembers following.

After Black Arachnia and Terrorsaur lead the prisoners inside the building, the Predacon soldiers flicker and vanish.

Inside the Predacon Citadel, the group of Cardassians stands before Megatron. All of them are in energon bindings. Energon chains are also connecting the prisoners together.

Megatron looks down from his throne at the Cardassians. "Tisk, tisk, I would have expected your race to put up a better fight. But did you honestly believe that you could out run the Predacon fleet?"

"Actually, I did" replied Damar, before an electric surge racked his body.

"Did I give you permission to speak!" Megatron blares at Damar as he fell to his knees from the electric shock.

"I gave them the orders to run." Gul Dukat speaks up.

"You knew you couldn't hide or run from my fleet, so why did you order them to try?" Asked Megatron has he looked over to Gul Dukat.

"We will fight you until the last Cardassian stops breathing, Megatron" Dukat says coldly.

"Well then, I have good news. You won't have to spend the energy to die. Guards! Take them to the pit." Megatron barked the orders, and 10 Predacon soldiers entered the room and escort the prisoners out.

"Pathetic organic race," Megatron muttered, "every last organic being should be slaughtered like the cows they are."

The remaining Cardassians are lead onto a metallic plank. They hear growling and barking from below. The Cardassians look up, facing the Quintisons.

Quintison looks coldly at the group. "Feed them to the Sharkticons!" he barked. The metallic plank de-materializes from under the Cardassians and they fall into the army of Sharkticons.

Megatron watches from his throne room through a holographic screen. "Disgusting snake-like race, how dare they defy me?" He turns around in his throne, flicking another switch, causing another holo-screen to appear in front of him. "Dinobot, report the status on Cardassia."

Soundwave's face appears on the screen "Missile silos are almost complete. We will be ready to launch missiles within 48 earth hours."

"These are the silos which replicate warheads as soon as one is launched, correct?"

"That is correct" Dinobot responds.

"Excellent," Megatron says with a sadistic smile, "the Maximals and others races won't have a choice but to bow to me."

Inside a staff meeting room, SilverBlade, along with several Maximal soldiers, sit at a large round table.

SilverBlade stands up, and faces the warriors. "I have chosen you all because of your impressive battle records and your resourcefulness on the battlefield. Our mission is to disable the computer that is controlling the planetary shield generators."

"Just how are we to get through the shields? The defense platforms would destroy any non-Predacon vessel before it can get anywhere near the planet." One of the soldiers asked.

"Glad you asked that." SilverBlade states with a smile in his voice. He types on the console in front of him on the desk, and a holographic image of a Predacon transport vessel.

"Maximal forces captured this vessel, along with its pilots in a raid on a Predacon colony two months ago. They aren't due to arrive back on Cybertron until two days from now. We will use this vessel and its entry codes to gain entry into the shield which protects Cybertron."

"Our Maximal energy signatures will trigger the alarm, and we'll be swarmed by holo-drones." Another soldier said with concern.

"The new armor that was recently fused onto your existing form has a built in signature mask. You will be detected as a Predacon. But these will only last five hours…." SilverBlade explained to the troops.

"That gives us plenty of time to drop the shield."

"We have more to do then destroying the shield." SilverBlade sighs. "We also have to make our way into the Citadel's underground computer network, and alter the programming of the holo-drones to Maximal control. That is why Wheeljack, Perceptor and Rhinox will be joining us. They will hack into the system and alter the programming of the drones while we guard the entrance to make sure no one disturbs us. The signature mask may fail before we are finished, and I don't expect everyone to return home."

"We will still go forward with this mission. We have nothing to lose!" One soldier speaks out.

"Here here!" says another.

"Then if there are no further questions or concerns, we will meet at the Predacon vessel in 3 hours."


	7. Chapter 7

Chapter 7

SilverBlade stands outside of a large Predacon vessel, while other soldiers arrive and enter it. Soon after, Perceptor, Wheeljack and Rhinox enter the hanger. The Maximal leader looks towards the view port, watching various Maximal vessels dock at the other hangers. A hint of depression shows on his face, as he does not think this mission will do any difference to stop the Predacons.

"SilverBlade, there is a less then two-percent chance that our mission will be a success" Perceptor stated coldly and sharply.

"I know, Perceptor, I know. That is why I gave everyone time to say goodbye to their loved ones. Is everyone ready?"

"Everyone is ready, SilverBlade, now lets get this mission over with. I want to see Megatron hanged for his crimes" Rhinox states in an angry tone.

"Predacon vessel Radeon has been boarded, open the hanger bay doors" Wheeljack says after tapping the communications button on the console.

"Opening bay doors now, Wheeljack, Good luck on the mission," Rodimus Prime responds from the other end of the radio.

The Predacon vessel floats out of the hanger slowly. Wheeljack begins to type at the controls and an electric warp field appears in front of the ship. The vessel flies into the warp, and disappears.

"Make sure you keep the transwarp field steady, Perceptor. The last time I used a Predacon transwarp field, I ended up lost for a few thousand years..." SilverBlade says with a worried tone.

"Just because it happened once, doesn't mean it will happen again..." Wheeljack says with much confidence. Though SilverBlade still felt uneasy about being in a transwarp conduit.

SilverBlade looked over at the soldiers at the back of the vessel "We all know our roles for our mission on Cybertron?"

They all respond with "Sir, yes sir!" They all respond as well as any well-trained military personnel would.

Rhinox picks up one of his chain guns, and it begins to spin "I want to see his head detached from his body..."

Silver looks over to Rhinox. "That really isn't like you to wish death on anybody..."

Rhinox sighed, and looks over to Silver "We were stationed on earth when the Predacon invasion began…"

-Flashback scene, with Rhinox narrating-

"We were stationed on earth at Maximal City when the Predacon invasion began. Rodimus Prime had told us to try to repel the Predacon forces until we had no choice but to leave."

"Rat Trap came running into the command center. The overhead speaker was blaring 'Predacon forced detected on earth'. Primal and a few other Maximals were standing over a holographic projection table, watching the battle take place outside.

"'We're loosing forces fast due to this invasion' Primal says to the room, as he noticed our soldiers were dropping rapidly. SilverBolt returned with 'This is no invasion, it is a slaughter.'"

"'What is our status on our air forces?' Primal asked, even though he clearly didn't look at the numbers of the aerial troops. 'They are falling faster then the ground troops, Sir.' SilverBolt responded to him. Optimus Primal then turned his attention to me and asked 'What about the auto cannons, Rhinox?' I was typing away at the computer console as I responded with 'The self-replication modules aren't keeping up. We're loosing auto cannons faster then they are being produced. We have to call an evacuation **now** Optimus...'"

"Suddenly, a huge explosion could be felt throughout the entire command center. The speakers begins to blare 'Predacon forces have entered the base; The Predacons have entered the base.'

Optimus looked over to Rat Trap and gave a quick command 'Send out an evacuation order to every Maximal on the planet. We can no longer counter-attack.' It was then I knew that the Predacon forces were too much for us. But SilverBolt didn't want to give up. He looked over to Primal, in almost shock and asked 'So we're retreating, and leaving the humans to be at their mercy?!' 'We have no choice; we have to retreat so we can regroup with reinforcements. Get to the ship, that's an order people!' Primal responded with a commanding tone. I knew the situation was serious, so I left my post and followed the others out just as the speakers began to announce 'All Maximals, retreat to the nearest transport vessel, all Maximals, retreat to the nearest transport vessels.'

"As I was running to the hanger with the others, I paused and looked back. Energy shots were whipping by us. Some Maximals were hit, but not fatally so they continued. Others were not and were killed in their tracks. The surviving Maximals, wanting to get to the transports quickly, trampled over the dead soldiers. I wanted to get those dead soldiers onto the transports too, but there wasn't enough time."

Optimus Primal reached the boarding ramp to one of the transports first and yelled out 'Let's move soldiers!' as the remaining Maximals boarded the transports. I saw Silverbolt and Cheetor run up the ramp as I entered the hangar, and Rat Trap was 10 feet behind me. I turned back to yell at him 'Move those skinny legs, Rat Trap!' He yelled back to me with 'You try running with rat legs!' Just as he finished saying that, an explosion in the hallway knocked him forwards onto his face. As the dust cleared, Optimus looked into the rubble, and said something I would never thought I would hear 'Megatron'"

"I looked over to Megatron, who stood in the recently made hallway, and Predacon soldiers were pouring into the base and firing at the transports. The shields activated around all of the transports, except the one that Optimus Primal stood beside.

"'Computer, activate auto cannons now!' Primal ordered and the auto-cannons from the floors, ceiling, walls, and from the hulls of the ships rose up and begin to fire on the Predacon soldiers. They begin to fall rapidly, but more keep pouring into the base."

"I saw Rat Trap climb onto his feet and begins to try to run, but only to have a large metallic object thrust into his back and come out his chest. I yelled to him as I saw Megatron easily lift him in the air with his arm. I attempted to run towards Megatron, but Primal grabbed onto my arm and said sternly 'There's nothing more that we can do, we have to leave NOW' I tried to plead with him to attempt to save Rat Trap as he was pulling me onto the transport. It was taking a pounding from Predacon weapon fire. As we got inside the shields activated and the boarding ramp closed."

"I continued to plead with Primal, saying 'Let me out, I need to save him!' I even attempted to re-open the ramp, but Primal wrestled me to the floor. Looking towards Silverbolt in the pilot's chair, he ordered 'Tell all pilots to launch and to head to the nebula.' I heard the sound of all of the transports lifting off and cloaking so they could leave Earth's atmosphere without being attacked. I looked over to Primal again, almost screaming at him in frustration 'Why did you not let me try to save him?' He calmly answered 'You would have been killed as well, and we can't afford to loose anymore friends...' I was devastated. I really wanted to save Rat Trap, but the consequences we too high. I would have been killed as well, and I wouldn't be here, attempting to save the galaxy from his clutches.

"Now I understand why you want him dead..." SilverBlade said with a calm tone.

Approaching Cybertron now, commander" Wheeljack turned his head.

Inside of a Predacon Space Port on Cybertron, some Predacon members sit at various computer terminals, looking at readouts about air and space traffic. One of the Predacons calls over to Shockwave "Sir, there's a transwarp conduit opening outside of the planetary shield"

"Show it on the screen" Shockwave responds back.

The Predacon soldier taps a few commands into the console, the main screen shows a swirling mass of energy, and a Predacon shuttle exits. The transwarp conduit closes behind the shuttle.

"This is Predacon transport shuttle 7031, requesting permission to dock" came over the intercom.

"This is Predacon Command. Please send your clearance and landing numbers"

"Transmitting numbers now"

Various Cybertronian symbols, letters and numbers appear on the screen.

"The numbers are verified, Shockwave. Should I let them through?" asked the Predacon at the console.

"They are a few hours early, which is unsettling. Let them through" Shockwave responded.

"Predacon Transport shuttle 7031, you are cleared to land at Star Port Delta. A security team will wait for you to transport your cargo."

Inside of the shuttle, Rhinox looks over to SilverBlade. "Do you think they suspected anything commander Blade?" Rhinox asked with a hint of worry in his voice.

"I'm not too sure. But we have to be prepared for anything."

The crew looks out the front view port to see a section of the shield disappear. The shuttle flies through the opening, and the opening seals behind then. The shuttle flies then past various other Predacon vessels, including battleships, cruisers, pyramid fighters, and transport vessels. The crew looks out the windows to see humanoid slaves, almost everywhere, being forced to work for their Predacon masters. The Predacon drones fired warning shots at everyone who slowed down, even the slightest bit. The slaves did their best to keep up, even though they were already exhausted beyond their limit. The Maximal couldn't help but narrow his eyes at the sight; the urge to run in and save them building up inside him. "How awful..." SilverBlade said with a hint of anger. Though the intense desire to run out and stop the Predacons right there was building. But he knew that wouldn't help at all. He was there to do a job, despite his personal feelings.

"Hopefully, within a few more days, this will all be changed..." Wheeljack says, as he pilots the shuttle to the star port. The shuttle lands in the middle of a group of Predacons. The soldiers open the back doors to find a shipment of missiles; they also scan for Maximal signatures.

"No Maximals detected, Commander Shockwave" One of the soldiers speaks as he looks into a holographic screen extending from his forearm.

"Excellent. Teleport the missiles to the armory"

The soldier salutes to Shockwave. The holographic screen vanishes, and the soldiers place the missiles on the ground. The 'lead' soldier taps a few commands on his wrist, and the missiles are teleported away. The soldiers also leave the landing pad.

The pilots nod to each other, and walk towards the door to the building.

"Now that phase 1 is done. Rhinox, go to the shield array with Wheeljack and 5 soldiers. I will take Perceptor and the rest of the soldiers to the holo-done center. If you are finished, join us" SilverBlade 'spoke' to the other Maximals under disguise or cloak, but only the Maximals heard the communication. 2 'Predacon' Pilots (Rhinox and Wheeljack) exit the star port and head in one direction, while the other 2 pilots (SilverBlade and Perceptor) go in another.

Ultra Magnus, Rodimus, and some of the other Maximals are in the command center. Gold bug, Cliffjumper, and other Maximals sit at the consoles, looking at Ultra Magnus and Rodimus.

Ultra Magnus looks over to Rodimus and says "All of the Maximal battle cruisers and Star Hoppers have been filled to capacity. Every Maximal is accounted for on the cruisers."

"And what about the armor?" Rodimus asks in return.

"Everyone has been fused with it, Rodimus." Ultra Magnus responds.

"When are our allies scheduled to arrive?"

"The last of the allies should be here within 8 hours"

Rodimus nods, and looks at the others. "Teleport to the flag ship, and tell the others to double-check everything they can within those 8 hours"

The entire crew vanishes, and appears in the Maximal Flag Ship.

Rodimus takes the Captain's chair. "Gold Bug, have every vessel check in with their main flag ships according to race."

Gold Bug salutes, and begins to hit keys at his console.

Outside of the Predacon Shield Array, the two Predacon pilots enter the massive building. They head over to one of the Predacon scientists at a console.

"Shut down the planetary shields, now" SilverBlade demands

One of the technicians yells back. "Are you crazy? Megatron will kill me!"

SilverBlade extends the claws from his left hand, and stabs the scientist in the stomach. The scientist looks at the pilot/SilverBlade in shock.

The other scientists in the room try to head to other consoles, obviously to call for help, but the Maximal soldiers de-cloak, and grab them before the Predacon scientists could call for help.

The technician looks up at SilverBlade. "It can't be…you're..."

"About to kill you if you don't shut down the main shield reactor" SilverBlade says colder

The scientist reaches his hand over to the communications console, but the hand was destroyed by an energy shot by the second pilot/Perceptor, and the scientist yelled in pain.

"I suggest you do what he asked, or do you want me to enter your head and take the codes?" Perceptor asks the technician.

"Alright…alright…you made your point..." The technician says in a panic.

SilverBlade withdrew his claws from the scientist's midsection "Try to call for help again and the next thing to be chopped off is your worthless head, as well as one of your buddies will have their arms torn off. Get to work before I lose my leniency."

The scientist begins to type at the console. He works for a few minutes. On his forearm, panels separate, and a laser weapon rises to the surface. He attempts to point and fire at Silver, but Silver was too quick, and the scientist's head explodes from an energy shot. The body of the scientist lands on the floor.

SilverBlade looks to the other scientists. "For that, all of you will share his fate, kill them."

"For that, all of you will share his fate….kill them" SilverBlade says as he turns to the other scientists. The Maximal soldiers, almost heartlessly fire on the other Predacon scientists.

"Perceptor, shut down the shields" SilverBlade orders.

Perceptor nods and begins to frantically type at the console. Various spots on his head light up as he works.


	8. Chapter 8

Chapter 8

Inside the Maximal flagship, the crew is busy preparing for the task ahead, checking systems and readouts, and passing data pads from one to another. There is a tense and fearful atmosphere in the vessel as no one stops for idle conversation. Rodimus stands up from the captain's chair, and looks at the very large three-dimensional holographic display of the fleet. He looks over to his right at Cliffjumper.

"Cliffjumper, open a channel to every Maximal, Federation, Klingon, Romulan, Nabooine, Coruscantian vessel, and everyone in between."

"All ships are reporting in- all are accounted for," GoldBug says as he looks at the incoming information on the screen.

"The line open, sir." Cliffjumper says after tapping commands on the console.

"This is Rodimus Prime, Maximal Commander speaking. Ten-thousand years ago, the Predacons ruthlessly began to conquer this galaxy and no one had the power to stop them. The Maximals, along with the human alliances kept within the shadows, planning, stealing from the Predacons, and sharing intelligence. The human races have been able to survive this long because of the advances in cloning technology," Rodimus pauses to collect his thoughts. "Each generation passing along information and instructions down to the next so one day, we can strike back. Now, ten-thousand years after the Predacons began to conquer, we are ready to strike back! We are ready to finally end Predacon oppression. We have seen our families, relatives, friends, and neighbors being raped, murdered, enslaved, or experimented on because of this Predacon oppression. I know the battle will be long, and countless lives will be lost. But we can not give up or turn away. We will fight until the last organic or non-organic being falls. Now is the time to strike back, to take what is rightfully ours. Now is the time to reclaim our freedom, now is the time to reclaim our property, now is the time to reclaim the enslaved, and now is the time to kick Predacon ass!"

. "Gold Bug, send a message to the Klingons to take the lead. Every other race follows like we had planned." Ultra Magnus says as he types on his console.

Gold Bug immediately begins to type into his console. The holographic image in front of the Captain's chair shows the fleet beginning to move into the agreed formation, with the Klingons at the front, and the Maximals at the rear.

Meanwhile, inside of the Predacon Shield Array, Perceptor remains at the controls of the console, typing away frantically. SilverBlade looks over to him annoyed. "You're the smartest hacker in the Maximal ranks, can't you work faster?"

"The encryption protecting this computer is more complex then I had previously anticipated." Perceptor says looks back over to his superior officer

One of the Maximal soldiers looks over on one of the monitors "Routine patrol drones are approaching. What should we do if they come inside?"

SilverBlade looks over to the solider who spoke "How many?"

"I'm counting 50, sir."

"I suspected as much. All soldiers cloak immediately. And hope they can't detect cloaked objects." SilverBlade ordered, and they all cloak one after the other.

"And what if they do?" Rhinox asks.

"Then we will have to fight our way through and take the risk of them alerting Megatron of our presence."

"If they see the screens, they will know someone is using the computer," Perceptor states.

"Scan the scientist, and project a holographic image of him over your body. If the guards ask any questions, answer them. Don't look in our direction, which may raise suspicion." SilverBlade orders as Perceptor scans the scientist and activates his cloak. A few seconds later a holographic image of the scientist appears. SilverBlade drags the dead scientist's body into a storage closet and cloaks as well.

"I was planning on planting a command which will give false updates to Megatron's throne room and the Predacon Command center." Perceptor responds back to SilverBlade.

"I like that idea, Perceptor," SilverBlade grins "Make it so."

On the frozen asteroid satellite Pluto, a small group of Maximals hover up a very large mountain if ice, with Optimus Primal leading the group.

Fuzor SilverBolt looks up to Primal as they ascend. "You never told us why we were sent to this frozen wasteland, no one would be crazy enough to build anything here."

Primal stops ascending and looks down to SilverBolt. "That's where you're wrong. Megatron built a small un-manned outpost here, which houses the last transwarp vessel which can travel through time." He then continues to ascend.

Fuzor SilverBolt follows his lead. "We have transwarp engines in our fleet, why couldn't we use those?"

"Because, SilverBolt, the engines that our fleet uses cannot travel through time, they only have the ability to travel from one point of the galaxy to another in faster then standard warp. When the Predacons attacked the Maximal colonies, the blueprints used to build them were destroyed, every copy. They even destroyed the cruisers that did have the time-travel ability on them. We then had to steal one of their ships to reverse-engineer transwarp technology. We never re-acquired the knowledge to time travel."

"So why did the Predacons even want the technology? They just destroyed it in the end." SilverBolt responds.

"They lied about that so that we wouldn't find out the truth. Megatron ordered this outpost to be built, so that in case he is ever in danger of being killed, he could send one of his generals back to the past to prevent his death." Primal responds.

"He sure chose a miserable place to build it, no human can survive here."

"Believe me, SilverBolt; Megatron chose to build here because many slaves did die from the extreme conditions found here, three-thousand to be exact." Primal says to SilverBolt as the group climbs.

Air Razor hovers alongside Primal, and turns to face him. "So we are here to steal the technology?"

"No, Air Razor, we are here to use it. We will go back in time and prevent Megatron's rebirth. We will use his 'emergency plan' against him. Our job is to go back, and prevent his spark from being unleashed from its prison, and then travel back here."

"But you said it yourself, Primal, time travel is too dangerous, the potential consequences are too costly, even if it is for the right reason. Something worse may happen to the galaxy." SilverBolt says with worry.

"Everyone who has ever been enslaved by the Predacons, everyone who has had family killed or raped by the Predacons and everyone who has died will all say it is worth the risk. We unknowingly released Megatron, so we have to take responsibility. To prevent ten-thousand years of pain and suffering, it is worth the risk." Primal responds.

"The other commanders have a fool proof plan. We should be helping them!" Air Razor exclaims

"They also wanted a back-up plan in case their invasion of Cybertron wasn't successful." Primal says as he reaches the top of the mountain and helps the others onto their feet. They all look into another snow and ice filled valley, and see a large structure. Laser turrets are on the roof, and some Predacon guards are patrolling the grounds.

"Not much security." SilverBolt says.

"Megatron didn't think anyone would be crazy enough to come here, so he didn't want to waste more resources than necessary." Primal responds as he views the landscape and begins to formulate a plan of attack. "Everyone activate your signature masks so we aren't detected."

The others tap commands on their wrists.

"But Primal, won't they still be able to see us?" Air Razor asks

"That is correct Air Razor, but our signatures won't be detected, so we have a few seconds before they realize what is happening…That may be all we need to get to the transwarp engine." Primal responds. "Ok, let's go."

The group descends down the mountain towards the Predacon compound. The whole crew nervous about being detected, even Optimus Primal. They arrive at the bottom of the mountain and proceed cautiously towards the compound. The alarms haven't been activated yet. The Predacon patrol units aren't altered to their presence.

"Looks like these masks appear to be working." SilverBolt says

"Quiet!" Primal commands, as he doesn't want anything to trip the alarms.

As the Maximal group approaches the compound, a scanning laser sweeps over the area. Optimus Primal doesn't seem too concerned, as he has confidence in the signature masks. As the scan finishes the alarm activates very loudly.

"Maximals detected, kill on sight." The computer blares over the communications links on the Predacon guards. They immediately turn and fire at the Maximal group without mercy. The Maximals begin to run towards the entrance, firing back.

"SilverBolt, take out those roof turrets!" Optimus commands as they run.

"Yes sir!" SilverBolt spreads his wings, and launches explosive missiles at the turrets on the roof as the others fire on the multitude of guards firing on them.

"Powerglide, Air Razor, punch a hole in the door!"

The two Maximals fire all they got at the door and it explodes. The Maximals run inside as the Predacon guards follow, continuing to fire. Meanwhile, Dinobot, sitting in the control room of the facility, taps a few commands on the console and an image of Megatron appears on the screen.

"Lord Megatron, four Maximals have infiltrated the Pluto compound and are attempting to make their way to the transwarp vessel. I have drones in pursuit."

"Cancel that order and tell the drones to stand down." Megatron responds.

"Are you insane? They'll ruin everyt-" Dinobot is interrupted as he feels he's being lifted off the ground, and being choked.

"Do not question my orders again, Dinobot. Remember your place. As soon as the Maximals use the vessel, gather the drones and teleport here, and destroy the building." Megatron says sternly as Dinobot suddenly hits the floor and gasps for breath.

"Yes, right away Lord Megatron." Dinobot salutes and Megatron's image vanishes from the screen. He then taps more commands and speaks to all of the comm links on the drones. "All drones stand down, do not pursue the Maximals."

The Maximals run onto an elevator as the Predacon fire mysteriously stops. The Maximals don't notice right away, as they want to get to their goal and it descends down to the lower levels as Primal taps on the elevator controls multiple times.

"The Predacon drones, they've stopped firing on us!" SilverBolt says in surprise.

"They must not want to damage the equipment. We've no time to discuss it, let's go!" Primal says in a commanding tone as they reach the floor. The group run over to a small space vessel and enters it. The crew takes their seats at the consoles with Primal at the command chair and they all begin to type at the consoles.

"Vessel is on." SilverBolt says.

"Course is set, Planet of Char when Megatron's spark was kept alive." Air Razor says.

"Powering engines." Powerglide says.

"Time to end this mess." Primal says to his troops.

"Transwarp engine is at full power." Powerglide says to Primal.

"Let's do it. Activate it now!"

The vessel begins to glow bright white. The light engulfs the entire vessel in a short time, and it vanishes from the room.


	9. Chapter 9

Chapter 9

On board the Maximal flag ship, the crew types frantically at the consoles. Rodimus reads updates from the other vessels on holographic screens that are around him. A female Maximal with the beast form of a bird looks around quickly, and taps a very short command on the keyboard before resuming her regular duties The red lights suddenly flash as an alarm begins to blare through out the vessel.

"A Predacon has been detected four floors beneath us Rodimus!" GoldBug called out as he turned to face Rodimus.

Rodimus stands up. "Everyone, power up your weapons and head…"

"Hold on Rodimus," GoldBug interrupted him. "Every other Maximal vessel has also reported detecting Predacon signatures as well!"

"Tell the entire fleet to stop, and tell the commanders of the other Maximal vessels to use all available personnel to hunt and kill the Predacon intruders. Also tell our allies why we stopped."

GoldBug taps quickly at the console, sending the message.

"Power up your weapons, everyone. We're going Predacon hunting. GoldBug, Featherglide, you stay here. As soon as the intruders are killed, activate the transwarp engines again."

The rest of the crew exits the bridge while readying their weapons.

Inside of the Predacon Shield Array, the Predacon drones finish their scan sweep of the building. One of the drones looks to the others "No Maximals detected here, move onto the next stop." The drones then quickly move out of the building.

"We were lucky there." SilverBlade states as he walks towards the exit.

"I have programmed a remote command into the shield system, which is undetectable. Once I activate it the planetary shields will 'fail' and lock anyone out of the system. The only way to reactivate the shields would to be hot wire each shield transmitter across the planet. And there are dozens of them. " Perceptor responds back to Silver.

"Nice work. Activate your cloak and join us. We need to head into the catacombs, underneath the Predacon Citadel."

Perceptor activates his cloaking device.

Inside of the transwarp vessel, Optimus Primal, SilverBolt, Air Razor, and Powerglide are at their respective consoles, guiding the vessel in transwarp space. Suddenly the vessel stops with a jolt. Primal turns his head over to Air Razor. "Did we reach our destination?"

"The computer indicates that we did, Primal." Air Razor responds.

SilverBolt looks out of the window. "Primal, look..." he says as his jaw drops and his eyes widen.

"What is it?" Primal asks as he walks to the window. He doesn't see the rocky terrain of Char, but a literal army of hundreds of Predacon soldiers, tanks, and hovering drones, all aiming their weapons at the vessel.

A holographic projection of Megatron's head appears on the vessel's console "If you want to continue to live your pathetic and worthless lives, I suggest you follow Terrorsaur."

"And if we don't?" Optimus Primal said defiantly.

Another holographic cube appears, showing thousands of humanoid slaves locked in a cage surrounded by Predacon soldiers pointing their weapons down at them. The bodies of the slaves show various degrees of punishment including black eyes, bruises, tattered clothing and sometimes no clothing at all. They also look severely undernourished. Young children hugging their parents, and the adults hugging each other, not knowing what will happen. Each slave shows immense pain, suffering and fear through their eyes, but the Predacons look on with heartless stares. The Maximals watch this scene with their eyes wide open with sadness. Optimus Primal remembers that this is what they wanted to stop. But any wrong move can end the lives of thousands of people.

"Refuse me even once, Primal, and these pathetic germs you call allies will be mass executed. **Their** blood will be on **your** hands." Megatron says coldly.

"We will **never** surrender to you, Megatron!" SilverBolt angrily looks at Megatron's face.

Megatron coldly stares back, as the holo-image shows the Predacons firing on some of the slaves, killing about one hundred and fifty of them in cold blood. "You better control your pet, Primal. I would have for another 'accident' to happen."

"SilverBolt, you thick headed hound! Control yourself!" Primal yells at SilverBolt.

"But, Primal!" SilverBolt started but Primal put his hand up. "Not another word." He turns to Megatron. "You win this round, Megatron."

The holographic cubes fade away. Optimus Primal turns to his fellow Maximals "We have no choice… We have to surrender." The Maximal group exits the transwarp vessel.

Terrorsaur greets them as the Maximals walk off the boarding ramp "Maximal scum, put your arms in front of you!"

The Maximal group does as they are told, they put their arms in front of them and Predacon soldiers attach energon bindings to their wrists and their feet.

SilverBolt turns his head to Terrorsaur. "Is a full battalion necessary to capture four Maximals?" Terrorsaur ignored him as one of the soldiers slugged SilverBolt across the jaw and in the stomach, causing SilverBolt to double over.

"Maybe I should state some rules." Terrorsaur looked at the group. "You are not to speak unless spoken to. Failure to do so will result in being punished. Now, Maximal scum, walk." The Maximals begin to walk down the Cybertronian streets, with Predacons leading them, and Predacons following.

On the Maximal flagship, they continue to search for the Predacon that appeared on their scanners. Featherglide and GoldBug stayed on the bridge waiting for orders from Rodimus.

Featherglide stood up from her chair and walks over to GoldBug seductively, and puts her hand on his shoulder. "GoldBug.." She says with a sultry voice. "Would you show me where the data discs are located? I should make a back-up of the system while the others are searching for that Predacon"

GoldBug rises from his chair "Sure, I'll show you where they are." He walked over to a small storage compartment and opened the door. Featherglide stands behind him. She attaches a small circular device to GoldBug's forehead and he drops to the ground

"Idiot, never trust an attractive female, especially one that shows any interest in you." She said as she grabs a few discs and walks over to her console and quickly begins to type commands on the keyboard and data begins to copy onto the discs.

Featherglide takes the disc out as soon as it ejects, and rushes towards the air lock.

Within the lower decks, Rodimus and his group of Maximals have split up, searching for the invisible Predacon. Right in front of Rodimus, a target-practice drone de-cloaks, hovering in the hallway. "Lower your weapons. It was just a practice drone." He taps his com-link on his wrist. "GoldBug, alert the fleet that the Predacon signatures were being emitted by practice drones."

No response.

"GoldBug? Respond!" No response again. "Senior staff, head to the bridge, everyone else back to your stations."

Back at the bridge, Rodimus removes the device from GoldBug's head and he wakes up. "A temporary shut down disc…causes your circuits to shut down for a short time. Who used this on you?"

"It was Featherglide. She came up behind me." GoldBug responds to Rodimus.

The computer then blares over the intercom system "Air lock sequence activated."

"Oh shit." Rodimus says as he speeds towards the air lock.

Cliffjumper exited from the elevator. "I got this one." He begins to fire at the air lock door, while running towards it as it closed completely. Rodimus approached from a perpendicular hallway "Computer, deactivate the air lock and open the internal door!"

"Unable to comply, external door is opening. Opening the internal door during this time is not permitted."

"Damn It!" Rodimus says as he punches the wall. He and Cliffjumper watch out the window. Featherglide floats beside the Maximal flagship. She looks back towards the window, taps a button on her wrist, and a smaller, once-person Predacon Fighter appears around her, and the Fighter quickly enters transwarp space, and disappears from censors.

"How could we not have detected a Predacon spy? They will know everything now." Rodimus said in frustration. "Order the fleet to resume course to Cybertron. Let's hope SilverBlade and Primal are having more luck then we are."

The Maximal fleets, along with their allies, resume their transwarp journey towards Cybertron. Rodimus sits back on the captain's chair with frustration as Ultra Magnus sits to his right. "How can we not have seen this? Once Featherglide delivers the data to Megatron, the chance of any of us surviving is too small to calculate."

"Not all hope is lost," Ultra Magnus begins. "That data has evolving encryption on it. The encryption changes one thousand times a minute. Only very few people have the master key to stop it: Primal, SilverBlade, You, and myself."

Rodimus looks over to Magnus. "They will still find a way, even if it means killing every organic that they enslaved."

Beneath the Predacon Citadel, SilverBlade, Perceptor, Wheeljack, Rhinox and a small group of Maximal soldiers are caught in a firefight against a group of Predacon drones.

"How can they know we're here?" Rhinox asks

"Motion sensors, they detect how the air moves, obviously I didn't know about this upgrade." SilverBlade answers back, while firing on the troops, his body becoming visible for the duration of the shots.

"We have to get past them!" Wheeljack says in a panic.

The Maximal soldiers run in front of the science officers and began to fire on the Predacon soldiers, mowing them down quickly.

"This was supposed to be about stealth!" SilverBlade yells at the soldiers.

The commanding soldier looks over to SilverBlade. "Time is not on our side, commander. And how do we know that you didn't lead them here in the first place?" He asks, not trusting SilverBlade

"Never mind that now, we must get to Megatron's Spark Chamber!" Rhinox looks sternly at the other Maximals. "Which way do we go, SilverBlade?"

"We go down this corridor." SilverBlade walks towards another entrance.

"Leading us into more traps, **Predacon**?" The soldier asks SilverBlade.

SilverBlade grew angry and turns to the commanding soldier "One more outburst and you will be relieved of command and another will take your place!" He continues to walk towards the entrance.


	10. Chapter 10

Chapter 10

Chapter 10

2 hours have passed since SilverBlade and his command unit entered the catacombs beneath the Citadel without Megatron being notified. He sits on his throne, looking over reports when another holographic screen appears beside him, showing Starscream's head

"Lord Megatron, we've spotted the traitor that gave Predacon technology to the Maximals."

"Bring him to me, alive. I will deal with him…personally."

Far from Cybertron, a large Predacon warship is pursuing a smaller Predacon vessel. The warship fires constantly at the smaller vessel, as it swerves back and forth to avoid the onslaught

Inside the warship, Starscream turns off the holo projection of Megatron and turns to the Predacons at the controls "Redirect the laser cannons at his engines, but don't destroy the vessel! We need him alive!"

"Orders understood." One of them says as he taps at the holographic controls, causing the weapons to fire. But the smaller vessel moves more rapidly side to side to avoid the shots.

In the distance, both the smaller vessel and the larger one see a very large fleet of Predacon ships. The smaller one takes a nose dive, the larger one follows.

"I've had **enough** of this!" Starscream says angrily. "Use the net!"

"Rodger!" One of the technicians responds as he types at the console..

A group of small spheres begin to appear all around the smaller vessel. Even as it moves, the spheres maintain their location around it. An energy spider-web begins to form from each of the spheres, totally encasing the smaller ship and causing it to come to a complete halt.

The monstrous Predacon warship hovers directly over the smaller vessel. When the underside of it opens, a bright, green beam fires from inside the Predacon warship, surrounding the smaller vessel, and pull it towards itself. Inside, a battalion of Predacon drones surround the smaller vessel. Starscream stands waiting as he sees the door open.

"High Octane" Starscream says, before taking a short pause. "I resent that Megatron would allow your worthless spark to be kept alive. I should dismember your worthless little body before you have a chance to speak. But Megatron would rather take the pleasure away from me." He says as a few Predacon drones escort the prisoner to Starscream.

"Commander Starscream, let me..." CRACK! Suddenly interrupted by Starscream's fist hitting Octane's stomach. Octane kneeled down as Starscream looks at the traitor with a grin of satisfaction on his face, taking pleasure in torturing Octane.

"Rule one: do not **ever** speak, unless you are permitted to! Rule two: failure to follow rule one **will** result in severe injury. Take the scum away to the brig!"

The Predacon soldiers drag High Octane down the hall with Octane weakened by the punch

The captured Maximals, in energon bindings, are escorted into the massive Command Center inside the Predacon Fortress on Cybertron. The ceiling has human skeletons strapped to it by chains. Primal looks over to the walls, noting a pattern of human skulls mounted on it.

"These were the lucky ones." Primal sighed, almost in disgust. But it was true; the dead humans did not have to endure the slavery.

Predacon technicians and engineers continue their work as the Maximal prisoners are lined up near Megatron's command chair. Each Maximal attempts to show no fear, but deep down, they know the worst is yet to come.

"So, you think you could outsmart me by going into the past and destroying my spark before I had the chance to create my empire?"

"No. But to hide your spark away from everyone and everything, and delete all record of it." Primal responded.

"Too bad for you it was nothing but a ruse. Did you really think I would keep a working transwarp drive beyond Cybertron? The reports that were leaked about that one installation on Pluto were intentional. I **knew** you would take the bait. And so, now I have three Maximals and a Maximal commander as prisoners."

"If you're going to kill us, throw us to the Sharkticons and be done with it!" Primal sharply answers.

2"Usually, I would even give a second thought to throwing Maximal abominations to their deaths…But you, Primal, have some information I need…or at least part of it."

Primal stays silent on the matter as Megatron taps a button on his throne "Send her in."

A door opens on one of the walls, and Featherglide enters the room, approaches Megatron while swaying her hips. She gathers the attention of the other Predacons in the room. She gives Megatron a data disk.

"Featherglide, what are you doing?!" SilverBolt asks, and then gets punched in the face by one of the Predacon guards.

"I was about to ask the same thing, what **are** you doing, Featherglide?" Primal asks.

"Show them," Megatron says.

"You idiotic Maximals never learn…" Featherglide responds as she taps a button on her wrist, and the 'Featherglide' image fades out.

"Laserbeak…" says Powerglide.

"You see Primal, Laserbeak here infiltrated your ranks and wasn't suspected for years. She also stole this disc, and she says this data disk holds information taken from your capital starship. I can only assume it has top-secret files that only the Maximal Commanders should know. Now, give me the decryption code." Megatron asks sternly.

"You'll have to take it from my spark-less body, Megatron!" Primal states defiantly.

"I thought I might get that reaction from you." Megatron says as five human prisoners, all female, are brought to him. Megatron powers up his arm cannon. He looks over to Primal. "This is your last warning, Primal. Give me the code."

"Wait…! I'll give you my portion…" Primal says with a sigh.

"But Primal! You can't be serious!" Objected Powerglide.

"I have no choice…." Primal responds "Computer, initiate security data track decryption code upload now" he commands his computer as a beam of data exits his eyes and into the computer's optical receiver. "I only have a part of the code."

"That is all I ask for. Your usefulness has come to an end. Guards, take these Maximal scums to death row."

Two Predacon seekers move to escort the Maximals out, as they begin to protest. "You said you wouldn't execute us! You lying piece of trash!"

Megatron looks over to them coldly. "As I said, your usefulness to me as expired. I no longer need you alive." His attention is then fixed on the Seekers. "Take them away, or you will join the Maximal scum in the Sharkticon pit."

Inside the Maximal flagship, the crew is busy working at the consoles, making sure everything is ready for the big battle that is about to occur. The command crew sends information back and forth between the other ships and the other races. The bridge is busy with the crew working rapidly. GoldBug looks up from his console, over to Rodimus. "We're almost to Cybertron, we're approaching the range of their long-distance scanners."

Rodimus looks over to Cliffjumper. "Tell the entire fleet, all races, to drop out of transwarp. Use impulse engines to approach the planet. We don't want to alert them of our presence yet."

Cliffjumper nods and taps at the controls. "Maximal Flagship to all ships, drop out of transwarp speed and engage impulse engines. Do not attack until we give the signal and do not decloak."

All of the ships from the alliance fleet, exit transwarp space. Cybertron sits in the distance.

"Such a beautiful planet, to be controlled by someone who is rivaling Unicron..." Rodimus says.

"How will we know when to attack?" Ironhide says as he turns to Rodimus.

"Once we receive the signal that SilverBlade and the others are ready."

Starscream's warship lands near the Predacon Fortress. Twelve Predacon drones surround High Octane as they escort him off the ship with Starscream following. Inside the halls of the fortress, the Predacon group leads Octane into the prison area. Firewing steps in a few moments after Octane enters one of the prisons, locked inside by a transparent blue shield.

"I will take the prisoner to Megatron."

"**I** captured him, Firewing. **I** will take Octane to Megatron!" Starscream responds back.

"You lost your job to me, Starscream. You **failed** to capture SilverBlade when he escaped with the Slash-II. You **failed** to bring him back Do you remember that day?" Firewing asks.

"I do remember that day…" Starscream asks as he closes his eyes and begins to playback the memories.

_Starscream walks into Megatron's throne room, alone. He looks up at Megatron, who sits at a large rotating throne._

_"Lord Megatron, SilverBlade jumped into transwarp as we were about to capture him. We lost his signal a short time after that."_

_Megatron's throne rotates, so he is facing Starscream._

_"You failed me, Starscream. You are no longer fit to be my second in command."_

_"Please your lordship, I WILL catch him, give me another chance!" Starscream begs._

_Megatron looks at him coldly. "My decision is made. You will still be Commander of the Predacon Air Fleet, but someone else will take your place as my second in command."_

_"__**NO ONE**__ can be as good as me!" Starscream objects._

"_That is not for you to decide." _

"_Tell me, who do you have that is better then me." Starscream asks_

"_I was hoping you would ask." Megatron responds. _

_To the right of the room, a door slides open, revealing a 10 foot tall, red and cold colored Predacon, with wings made of fire. ._

"_This is Commander Firewing. He will be your superior. He is built just like SilverBlade, only far more aggressive and far more masochistic then you can be. He also has the ability to control fire, heat, and lava. I suggest you don't question him, ever. Now, Starscream, leave my sight. You've disappointed me far enough today."_

_Starscream walks to his quarters, and looks at the screen "Computer, contact High Octane. Replace my image with Commander Firewing's image." The computer flickers on, and High Octane's head appears on the screen_

"_This is Commander Firewing to Octane."_

"_Yes Commander?"_

"_I want you to do something, for the glory of the Empire. But you need to understand one thing."_

"_What is that?"_

"_This is not to be repeated to anyone."_

_"Not even Megatron?"_

_"ESPECIALLY not Megatron."_

_"What are your orders?"_

_"I'm sending you technical blueprints." Starscream's arms move slightly as he taps on the console and the blueprints appear on Octane's screen within a few seconds._

_"These are for transwarp, replicators, teleportation, and other technologies. Why are you giving me these?"_

_"Give these plans to the Maximals. Firewing is giving me orders to give you orders."_

_"You can't be serious."_

_"I am serious. As your superior, I am ORDERING you to do this"_

_"With this, the Maximals have a chance to conquer us again. We'll be in the brig!"_

_"Once the Maximals come here to take over Cybertron and successfully killed Megatron, I will quickly wire my own spark, where his spark is currently. I will control all of the drones on Cybertron. I will use them to destroy the Maximal survivors. With the Maximals out of the way, the remaining organic races will have no one to turn to, no protection. The Predacon Empire will then be unchallenged. No one will have the ability to destroy our empire. Now, go._

Starscream opens his eyes, looking at Firewing, who is now escorting Octane down the hall.

"I remember that day…. And you will regret it…."


	11. Chapter 11

Chapter 11

SilverBlade leads his entourage walk through the underground catacombs of Cybertron. The hallways look very aged and rusted. Exposed wires hang from the walls and ceiling, as green liquid lies on the ground. The floor is also littered with destroyed Cybertronian bodies, and human and alien corpses, painting images of battles long ago. They walk to an adjacent hallway, and SilverBlade moves against the wall, and motioning with his arms that the others do the same.

"Perceptor, scan through the wall. There should be a door there."

Perceptor nods and kneels on the ground as his eyes begin to glow. He looks straight at the wall, but his vision sees right through it. "I detect twenty Predacon guards, five rows of four. Behind them appears to be a metallic wall, with no indication of any door."

"Can you activate more sensitive scanners?" Wheeljack asks

"Not without being detected by Predacon scanners."

One of the Maximal soldiers looks up to SilverBlade. "This must be where Megatron's spark is located. What else would have that kind of security and forces protecting it?"

"I agree" SilverBlade responds, but the commander speaks over Silver. "Maybe it's a trick; maybe Megatron's spark isn't heavily guarded, just to keep us off track."

"I don't agree with you, sub-commander. That is the oldest form of deception in the book. Prepare the sensor fog."

The Maximal soldiers throw spherical objects into the hallway where the Predacons are. That hallway soon begins to fill with a very dense, black smoke.

"Now, while they can't see!" SilverBlade states, as everyone in the Maximal group rushes to the hallway and begins to fire. A few seconds delay and Predacon guards begin to fire out of the smoke.

In the Predacon command room, a technician turns on his seat to face Megatron as an alarm activated "Lord Megatron! Sir, weapons-fire has been detected in the underground catacombs right outside Chamber 33. So far, ten guards have been destroyed."

Megatron taps a button on the arm rest of his chair, activating a holographic image of Firewing. "Send drones down to the catacombs, deal with the threat."

As the Predacon fire diminishes, one last lucky shot from a Predacon hits SilverBlade in the back as he turned around to watch for more troops. Silver's holographic wrist computer lights up solid red, and the computer voice activates. "Warning, cloak and signature mask units disabled."

"Shit!" He says to himself. He turns to the others "Get into that room!"

The other Maximals re-cloak and the group hears the unmistakable sound of Predacon soldiers coming down the hallways. Metallic clunking sounds as the soldier's feet hit the ground while running towards the Maximals.

"There he is! Seal all other access points!" One of the Predacons calls out. Within seconds, energy shields form at all of the hallway entrances, cutting off SilverBlade from escaping, and cut off from the Maximal group he was with.

SilverBlade turns towards the group of Predacon drones. He activates his six knuckle claws, and charges at the group. The group of Predacon drones proceeds to fire at SilverBlade. A few shots hit him, but he doesn't even slow down before he dives at the drones.

"There's a keypad right here, on the wall," Rhinox says.

"Let's crack open this door soon. I'm sure replacement drones are going to be here very soon," Wheeljack responds as Rhinox, Perceptor, and he examine the keypad as the Maximal soldiers are standing watch.

Rhinox reaches out for the keypad, the key pad and activates it, with a Predacon computer voice speaking**.** "Predacon signature detected, access to keypad granted."

Wheeljack turned to the Maximal Soldier commander. "Looks like you were wrong about Commander SilverBlade, he **isn't** a Predacon spy."

As SilverBlade finishes slicing the drones into pieces, he stabs the only survivor in the shoulder and lifts him up by his claws. "**Deactivate the shields, Predascum!" **The drone stays motionless and doesn't say anything. Silver uses the other set of claws to slash the drone's head into three pieces. He walks up to one of the control panels and stabs at it. The shield drops and he runs down the corridor.

SilverBlade runs until he sees a hole in the roof of the corridor, leading to the surface. He stops and a section of his side opens up. He grabs a small rocket-shaped device and connects a wire from his neck to this rocket. After a few minutes, the computer says quietly "commands uploaded". Three feet from the side of the rocket spring out and Silver sets it on the ground. The rocket cloaks and Silver resumes running down the corridor.

Onboard the Maximal flag ship, the various Maximals work on their consoles or are rushing around to do their work. Cliffjumper spins on his chair to look towards Rodimus Prime. "How will we know when the shields are offline? The scanners still show that they are activated!

"The team will send a signal."

"Wait, hold on," Gold Bug says from his console. "I'm picking up a small object decloaking in front of us. It's the size of a torpedo, but it's not moving fast enough, and it has the energy signature of a Predacon torpedo."

"That's the signal. Beam it aboard!" Rodimus commands.

"Are you sure about that, Rodimus?" Ultra Magnus says to Rodimus.

"The torpedo is unarmed, and it is moving much too slowly to be a threat. Beam it onboard!"

Gold Bug taps at his console, sliding along the controls. "Torpedo has been transported into the cargo bay."

Rodimus exits the bridge. A few moments pass and he enters the cargo bay, where an engineer is disassembling the torpedo, and removes a glass data cube. He then places the data cube into a cube-shaped slot in a computer console. The screen lights up with text and images.

"This is definitely from Commander SilverBlade. He says that the planetary shield has been disabled, but, the shield generators, both on the planet and in orbit, still emit the energy signature to indicate that the shield is active," The engineer says.

"That is clever. Fooling the Predacons into thinking they are still protected. Unfortunately for us, our censors still detect it. We'll have to go on faith on this one," He taps his com link. "Rodimus to Magnus, Tell the fleet to enter orbit, but to remain cloaked. The planetary shield is disabled, but the defenses are still active. Also tell the fleet to prepare for battle. Both land and air troops"

"Rodimus, Sir?" Ultra Magnus begins. "We're still detecting that the shield is up."

"Go on faith. The shield is disabled, but Perceptor has kept the energy signature emitting, fooling the Predacons into a false sense of security."

"Yes sir, Rodimus."

Cliffjumper taps at his console, opening up communication to the fleet.

"This is the Maximal Command Vessel calling every ship within the fleet. Prepare to enter Cybertron's orbit. Ignore what your censors detect. The shield has been disabled. I repeat: all races and all vessels enter Cybertron's orbit in battle formations. Remain cloaked until we give the signal to proceed. Prepare your troops for battle, both land and air attackers. Wait for our signal to attack."

Over the speakers on the bridge, the various races begin to report back:

"United Federation of Planets getting into formation."

"Klingon Empire proceeding."

"Galactic Republic entering orbit."

"Protoss are underway."

The reports keep coming in from every race.

Deep underneath Cybertron, the group of Maximal scientists is gathered outside of a sealed door, while Rhinox is kneeled in front of it, with a cable running from the back of his neck to inside the console located on the wall.

Wheeljack looks around the corner to see if any Predacon troops are coming by "Hurry up Rhinox! We haven't got all day."

Rhinox looks over to Wheeljack "I'm going as fast as I can without trying to alert the security system."

Perceptor looks at the console screen as the information scrolls extremely quickly.

The information stops scrolling as Rhinox looks to the door. "I cracked the code." The door opens to reveal a hallway, with the walls looking like they are made from crystal.

The scientists and Maximal soldiers stroll in as Rhinox is about to disconnect from the console. The hallway's lights turn on to reveal walls that look as if they are made from solid crystal An energy shield activates and seals the group inside the wall, while Rhinox is left outside. An energy beam forms from one side of the hall to the other, halfway up the wall, and moves down the hall rapidly.

"Oh shit!" Wheeljack exclaims as he and the scientists duck down. One of the soldiers was on his way down when his head was sliced off by the energy beam.

Rhinox looks down the hallway "Not good!" as he reconnects back to the console.

One more energy beam moves down the hallway, skimming the leg from one of the soldiers.

Perceptor calls back to Rhinox. "Hurry up and deactivate this!"

"I'm trying to as fast as I can!" Rhinox hands can be seen moving around, as if they are rotating manipulating an object in the air.

A few more beams travel down the hallway. One travels near the ground and anothertravels near the ceiling. The third beam coming down the hallway at a diagonal. The scientists are quick to avoid the beams, but one soldier is cut in half diagonally, and another loses his leg.

Wheeljack gets on his feet, only to jump over another beam; as Perceptor does the same. "Hurry up Rhinox! These things are coming faster and faster!"

Rhinox is busy attempting to shut down the security system, while, at the very far end of the hall, energy beams begin to form in the pattern of a chain link fence. Once all of the beams are in place, this 'energy fence' moves rapidly towards the remaining Maximals, who charge for the door.

Perceptor watches as the energy fence comes closer as he yells out. "RHINOX!"

The energy fence stops mere inches centimeters away from the remaining Maximals in the hallway, and it vanishes. The hallway lights go dim.

Wheeljack leans on the wall. "That was too close for comfort."

Rhinox walks down the hallway. "No time for resting, we need to do this, and fast."

The rest of the scientists, as well as the remaining soldiers, follow Rhinox.

SilverBlade walks along the path where he finds two Predacons guarding the doorway. They see the Maximal approaching and stand ready in defiance.

"Stop!" one calls out, while the other prepares to open fire if SilverBlade did not comply. But commander's only response was laughing before lunging at the guards, and slicing them down.

"No challenge for me? That is such a shame," he says in disappointment. Then he turns to the doorway and uses his claws to tear it down. The room he walks into is an endless abyss of pitch black darkness. No sound could be heard, but the tapping of his feet as he goes further and when he stops, then its complete silence. An energy field suddenly activates where the door is supposed to be, cutting off the light from the hallway.

"Did you ever think I wouldn't notice you on Cybertron?" A voice calls out from the darkness.

"Show yourself!" Anger can be heard in SilverBlade's voice as he looks around in vain. The only light in the room is the one being emitted from his claws. A massive fireball erupts in the middle of the room and flames are sent in all directions. SilverBlade quickly steps back as his optics open wide at the ten-foot figure emerging from a pillar of flames. "Firewing..." he says in shock.

"Welcome home, brother," Firewing sneers. His wings, still erupting in fire could paint images of fearsome, demonic beings from Human biblical scripture - even in a Cybertronian's mind if they understood Earth theology.


	12. Chapter 12

Chapter 12

As the Maximal/Alliance fleet draws closer to Cybertron's orbit, the computer on Maximal flagship alerted the occupants

"Warning, impact with Cybertronian planetary shield imminent. Adjust course to prevent collusion."

"Keep going" says Rodimus.

The Maximals continue to tap away at their consoles.

The Maximal and Alliance fleet passes through the 'shield' that was detected.

"Galactic Republic attackers deploying"

"Klingon Empire ready to attack."

"Protoss standing by"

Each race involved calls out over the communications channel to indicate that they are ready to fight.

Several thousand of attack vessels begin to stream out of the capitol cruisers, with Cybertronian ships taking the lead.

Within the attack vessels, the pilots hear the com link activate. "This is Rodimus Prime. Do not destroy the hologram-emitters, only the weapon arrays. We need the hologram-emitters online."

"Are you sure you know what you're doing, Rodimus?" Ultra Magnus asks while turning his head to face his superior

"Once Wheeljack and the others re-program the Predacon holodrones, Cybertron will be under Maximal control once again."

As the attack fighters for the Maximals and their allies circle the planet to search for the plasma turrets, Rodimus taps on the comm link controls again "Squads one through five, scan the planet for teleportation dampening fields and destroy them"

"But Sir" one of them responds back over the radio. "Our cloaking will be disabled once we fire. The turrets will lock onto us within seconds."

"Then I suggest you re-cloak quickly after you fire." Rodimus calls back.

Rodimus and the other Maximal commanders look at the view screen, as they see their attack fighters decloak for a split second and multiple buildings are destroyed, and the fighters re-cloak, just as the Predacon turrets rotate around, preparing to fire, but the re-cloaking fighters don't allow them too.

Within the main Predacon headquarters, the alarms activate loudly "Warning, teleportation dampening fields critical. Warning, teleportation dampening fields destroyed in sectors thirty five, thirty six, forty two ."

Megatron turns sharply over to Rumble "Report!"

"Small vessels are uncloaking and re-cloaking across the planet. The size suggests a single-pilot fighter. They cloak too fast for the turrets to lock on!" Rumbles responds in a panic.

Megatron looks into the monitor to see thousands of attack ships decloak, and multiple buildings explode. He then looks over to Cyclonus, Scurge "You two, get out there and take control of your drones. I'll contact Starscream."

Cyclonus and Scurge run out of the HQ onto a balcony, and take flight.

SilverBlade stands in an attack position as he feels the flames coming from his younger brother. "You WILL NOT stop me, brother, I WILL get to Megatron!"

"Of course you will." Sneers FireWing. "You'll get to Megatron, being pulled by a shock collar as you beg for death while watching your comrades die in a futile attempt to eliminate the Predacons." Withing seconds of FireWing activating his own claws, SilverBlade collides with FireWing's midsection, sending both bots to the ground.

SilverBlade is the first one on his feet as he activates his plasma launcher and begins to fire relentlessly at FireWing. Firewing scrambles to his feet and sends a few plasma shots of his own at Silver. Silver leaps high into the air, and on his way down towards Firewing, he moves his hands so that his claws are aimed right at Firewing. Firewing quickly reacts, bringing out his energon sword, activating it, and moving it above his head to block SilverBlade's attack.

Sparks fly from the claw/sword contact as SilverBlade lands on his feet, pushing his weight towards Firewing, and Firewing pushes back.

"You've become soft, brother. Back when you were a Predacon, you could have killed me without much effort. Your Maximal programming has made you weak!" Firewing says insultingly at his older brother. SilverBlade's eyes glow red with anger as he activates his flight unit, pushing against Firewing even harder, causing both of the massive bots to move towards the wall.

Firewing steps to the side quickly, grabs Silver's neck in his arm and attempts to smash SB's head into the wall. SilverBlade puts his hands out against the wall to stop his head from colliding with it. Silver removes his hands from the wall and FW sees the opportunity to try to smash SB's head against the wall, but as soon as FW tries too, Silver reaches his hands to grab Firewing's arms and sends electricity through his body, causing FW to release SilverBlade and drop to the ground, screaming from the pain.

SilverBlade re-activates his claws and motions to swipe at FW's head, but Firewing jumps up and tackles Silver to the ground. SilverBlade moves his feet up to his chest and kicks Firewing off high and behind him, and SilverBlade jumps up, turns around quickly and fires plasma shots just as Firewing descends, hitting Firewing a few times.

Firewing gets to his knees and he sends an intense fireball at SilverBlade. Silver stops firing and jumps high into the billowing smoke and attempts to slash at Firewing on his way down. Firewing reacts quickly and launches his own plasma shots at SilverBlade, hitting him in the chest, causing SB to fall short of Firewing.

SilverBlade gets to his knees then stands up on his feet, his chest partially damaged from the plasma shots. "Come on, younger brother, I've seen you dismember bots my size and bigger in less time. Who really has become soft? Me or you?"

Firewing's eyes begin to emit smoke, as he jumps at SilverBlade. Loud clanging and energy shots discharging is heard from Starscream, as he watches the fight from the shadows, above the duelling duo, his figure only seen during flashes of light from down below.. Starscream has his arm out, pointing his blaster downwards, targeting Firewing. He mutters under his breath. "You stole my job. You stole my troops, I will steal your life."

"Sir!" Rumble called out sharply to Megatron. "Multiple teleportation signals are occurring in sectors thirty five to forty two. I am detecting hundreds of Maximals."

Megatron belts out orders to Rumble "Then order troops to teleport directly on top of them!"

Rumble taps on the holographic interface in front of him. The computer responds "Request denied."

Megatron's face looks furious. "Rumble, explain this."

Rumble frantically taps on the commands "It appears that the Maximals are using their own teleportation dampening field, disallowing our signals to get through."

Megatron puts his fingers to his chin. "hmm. They must be using the modified cloaking field of Protoss Arbiters. Clever of them. Notify all Predacons to converge on that location as quickly as possible.

As Rumble begins to contact various branches of the Predacon military, Megatron taps the holographic interface at his command chair "Starscream?"

No response.

"Starscream, I demand you to respond!" Megatron grows impatient.

Still no response.

"Computer, locate Commander Starscream."

The female voice of the Predacon computer responds with "As you wish, Lord Megatron." Megatron's screen shows an overhead map of the Cybertronian tunnel system, pinpointing Starscream's location.

"Commander Starscream has disabled his intercom." The computer states.

"Did he disable the software only, or is there a physical disconnection?" Megatron asks the computer.

"Scanning.. intercom is disabled in software only, no physical disconnected detected." The computer responds.

"Then force re-enable his intercom remotely." Megatron demanded.

"Processing…intercom now enabled. You may now proceed." The computer responds.

* * * * * * * * * * * * * *

Firewing and SilverBlade continue to battle, as Starscream watches from a ledge high above the fighting brothers, he takes aim with his arm mounted blaster, trying to get a good, clear shot of Firewing.

"Get out of the way, Blade" Starscream mutters to himself, as his patience decreases rapidly while waiting for him to move. He finally sees Firewing toss SilverBlade against the wall, giving him a clear and open view of Firewing's torso. As Starscream prepares to fire, his communication unit activates "Starscream, I demand to know why you deactivated your communication unit?" Megatron is heard asking.

Starscream retreats back into a narrow corridor, hoping that the fighting brothers didn't notice him. "M..My apologies master, I am attempting to take out commander Blade before you so rudely interrupted my shot." Starscream's voice remains quiet, but also annoyed.

"You are needed on the surface, Commander Firewing will handle Silver."

"I have a clear shot, master, I just need…." He suddenly groans audibly, but a struggle to keep his presence undetected by the brothers below as his body is electrified.

"You'll do as I say, Starscream. Or I will teleport you to the surface by force. Understood?"

Starscream gets to his feet and scrambles over to the ledge again, taking aim at Firewing, hoping to get the shot out and ignores Megatron completely. Just as his blaster powers up, his body glows for a few seconds and re-appears in the Predacon command room, right in front of Megatron.

"I was about to take out Blade!" Starscream protested, but Megatron grabs his throat and begins to squeeze.

"I do not know how my predecessor tolerated your blatant ignorance or constant betrayal, but you are on your last chance. Now, get out to these coordinates and make sure that the Maximals do not gain any more sectors." Megatron says sternly as he tosses Starscream out through the window. The broken window re-forms again as if it was never broken.

Megatron looks to the administrative Predacons. "Get all ground troops to that location. Have all aerial troops continue to go after their fliers."

"Yes my Lord" each of the Predacons state with a salute, before going back to the computer consoles and belting out orders to the Predacon Generals in the battle.


	13. Chapter 13

**Chapter 13**

Back at the underground chamber, the Maximal scientists (Rhinox, Perceptor, Wheeljack, and Ratchet) reach a door labeled 'Planetary Defence'. The bots notice an optic scanner, and the computer activates "Align your optics with the scanners to gain entry."

"I thought we were looking for Megatron's spark.." says Ratchet.

"Data gathered by spies indicate that Megatron's spark is in this room." Perceptor replies.

"But why here? Shouldn't it be in his throne room?" Rachet asks.

"By wiring his spark directly with the planetary defence grid, he has total control of every physical and holo drone, and control of all of the planetary and orbital weapons if he needed to. It also keeps his spark out of any potential targets. By placing his own spark underground, Megatron assures his survival." Rhinox replies to both of them.

Wheeljack scans the hallway and looks at a holo-display emitting from his wrist "There are no laser emitters here, we're not in any danger now." He says.

"Excellent, then I'll get to work." Rhinox says as he begins to remove a maintenance panel beside the optic scanner.

"Wait!" Says Ratchet. "There might be censors there to alert the Predacons about unauthorized access. I grabbed the head from one of the drones we encountered earlier."

"That was an attack drone, though." Rhinox responded. "But I may be able to bring up security codes for maintenance drones to feed to the head we have." Rhinox resumes removing the panel and begins to scan the various components in the wall as Wheeljack begins to disassemble the drone's head.

"Found it!" Rhinox exclaimed as he looks at the holo display emitting from his wrist. "All I need to do is transfer one of the codes to the drone. Are you done with that, Wheeljack?"

Wheeljack makes some final alterations on the drone's head. "Alright, I'm done." He responds and hands the drone's head to Rhinox. He plus in a cable from the wall to a port in his wrist, and connects a cable from the drones head into another port in his wrist. "Transferring now."

A few seconds pass as some of the Maximals soldiers keep watch.

"Transfer is complete" Rhinox says, disconnecting the cable from the drone's head. He carries the head over to the optic scanner and places the optics in line with the scanner.

"Scanning" The Predacon computer says coldly.

The Maximal star fighters and their allies continue across the planet, destroying the plasma turrets and re-cloaking almost immediately as they pass.

"Megatron, my Lord" Rumble calls out. "The turrets are unable to lock onto their star fighters. They cloak, fire, and re-cloak again."

"Can you identify the cloaking frequency?" Megatron asks coldly.

"Each one is using a randomized frequency each time they cloak."

"Based on their flight pattern, predict the next turrets to be destroyed, and create some holo-drones in those positions!" Megatron orders harshly.

"Yes, Lord Megatron." Rumble salutes as he begins to type away at the console.

On board the Maximal Flagship, the Maximal Commanders watch the holographic display, monitoring the attack as turrets and shield generators are destroyed in rapid succession.

"They've destroyed about sixty percent of the turrets and shield generators, Rodimus" Ultra Magnus says coldly.

Suddenly, they see the Maximal Star Fighters begin to fall from the sky, one after the other.

"I've been hit!" "They're on my tail! I can't sha…" "Pred holo-drones are in pursuit!" and other similar phrases begin to be heard from the intercoms.

"What's going on?" Rodimus calls out from his commander's chair.

"Our fighters are dropping like flies from the Predacon holo drones." Magnus replies.

"Try to find out how the Predacons are able to do this, we need to have every shield generator offline!" Rodimus exclaims.

"I got it!" Goldbug calls out. "They're extrapolating future positions based on flight paths when they decloak."

"Dammit!" Says Ultra Magnus.

"Gold Bug, open a channel to the fighters" Rodimus commands.

"Channel open, sir" Gold Bug states.

"The Predacons are predicting flight patterns based on your flight paths. Mix it up, we don't need to loose any more fighters."

The crew hears the confirmation call outs over the radio as the Maximal starfighters go on different flight paths.

"Once the turrets have been destroyed, send in ground troops planet wide." Rodimus commanded, as he watched the holographic display of the attack.

SilverBlade and Firewing are locked in an intense sword fight, with SilverBlade's long energy blades extending from his arm and Firewing's hand-held lightsaber, both bots are trying to out-power the other, neither brother getting the upper hand in the fight.

"What's wrong big brother? I've seen you plough through dozens of Predacons with ease. This is barely a challenge for me. Optimus has made you **weak**! Optimus has made you **pathetic**! Optimus has kept you back, kept you from becoming what you were intended for. You were **built** to lead, yet here you are, still just a puppet after several thousand years. I was built to take your place, when it should have been **you** at Megatron's side! Firewing angrily states as he continuously insults SilverBlade.

SilverBlade's eyes spark with electricity, indicating that he is pissed off to his extreme, begins to slash at Firewing with stronger/faster movements, with electricity now engulfing his hands and emanating from his energy blades.

"Good, good" Firewing smirks evilly as he enjoys seeing his older brother – a Maximal, show traits of a spark-less, cold, anger-filled Predacon general, while deflecting the slashes from the energy blades with his own.

As SilverBlade slashes at his brother with ever-increasing anger, the Maximal insignia on his chest begins to glow, leaving burn marks on the metal.

FireWing grabs Silver's wrists out of the air and looks him in the eye. "Are you even trying? I'm beginning to get bored. I thought you would have put up a better fight." He says, mocking his older brother.

SilverBlade knees Firewing in the stomach, causing him to stumble back. He then charges at Firewing, grabbing his neck, and pounds his body against the wall. "How does this feel?" He asks angrily as his hands surge with electricity, and electrocutes Firewing by the neck and hearing Firewing scream in pain.

As the Maximal scientist group enters Chamber 33, they see a computer console with a large screen attached to it, and down the corridor, they see a second sealed off door.

"Over there must be Megatron spark chamber." Rhinox says.

"Then lets end this!" One of the solider Maximals angrily says as he aims the plasma rifle at the door.

"STOP!" Wheeljack quickly grabs the weapon. "The door is protected by a level 10 force field. This will not do anything except to trigger the traps."

"That being?" the soldier asks annoyingly, as he grabs his rifle again.

"That being…if we were to trigger the security measures, this entire room would be filled with an acidic gas designed to dissolve cybertronian metal. It would kill us, even with Silver's new armor." Wheeljack explains.

"I knew he could not be trusted, he can't even get that armour correct." The soldier states coldly.

"The armour wasn't meant to take on acid…it only had energy blasts in mind. Now would you be less trigger-happy and guard the door?" Rhinox jumps in, getting annoying at the Maximal soldier.

As Rhinox and Wheeljack begin to discuss plans, Perceptor walks over to the other wall, which appears to be broken up into panels as he sees seams along the metal. "What is this?" he wonders out loud as he puts his hand along the wall. Suddenly, the panels vanish, revealing a window. "Rhinox, Wheeljack, look at this."

The two bots walk over to the window and they see another very large cavern, as far as their optics can see. Perceptor looks to his hand and notices that there are more switches. He taps all of them, and the lights activate within the tavern, revealing rows and rows of vertical columns. Each column extending from the ceiling to the floor – which looks like many thousands of feet high..

"What are they.." Rhinox inquires as Wheeljack bolts to the computer console, frantically tapping away.

"You won't believe this." Wheeljack says, as he partially turns around "Those are Maximals. Millions of them. Every one."

"No wonder they're so many columns." Rhinox mutters. "What else can you tell us about this?"

Wheeljack taps at the console some more. "Each body has it's original spark. It's like Megatron is using the original bodies to store the spark, instead of constructing a new storage facility."

"But how?" Rhinox questions. "How are the bodies not active? They all appear dead."

"Hold on, I'll find that answer." Wheeljack states as his fingers fly across the keys, digging further into the data. "Each body is wired into the columns to keep the body just active enough to keep the spark alive….wait. I spotted something." He pauses for a few second. "Slag…" he says with worry. "Each Maximal body is also wired with an explosive. If the spark – or body, are tampered with…" he begins to say, before he is interrupted by Perceptor. "They will explode and by doing so, we will effectively be killing our own comrades."

"Then we have no time to lose." Wheeljack says as the others move to the computer and they begin to discuss a plan of attack to this problem without losing more Maximals.


	14. Chapter 14

Chapter 14

SilverBlade tosses Firewing hard against the wall. Burn marks in the shape of Silver's fingers remain on Firewing's neck, as he coughs up some mech fluid from the electrocution.

"That's the brother I remember." Firewing sneered in pain. "But you're still not going to defeat me. You're still a Maximal. No Maximal has ever escaped death when fighting me. I do not intend to lose to you, as you are not worthy of defeating one like me." Firewing says as he still mocks his older brother.

SilverBlade's insignia shows signs of partially melting off, showing small portions of the Predacon insignia underneath. He uses his flight unit to deliver a hard shoulder-check into Firewing, partially burying him into the wall. "No Predacon has ever defeated me in battle. Every Predacon that has battled against me has died from my claws."

"Those were nothing but Predacon drones, but what matters is, you will not win. Maximals are weak. **You **are weak because you are a Maximal. You don't have the nuts and bolts to kill a Predacon general. Your Maximal programming will always seek the peaceful solution, even if it means you will never achieve true victory. That is why Maximals will never win, that is why Maximals were easy to conquer – Maximals never take the step needed to ensure victory!" Firewing continues to mock his older brother. SilverBlade's eyes spark with electricity as he grabs Firewing and tosses him into the air, followed by a few shots of his arm-mounted plasma launchers. Firewing lands on the ground hard, his armor littered with holes, sparks coming from underneath his armor.

Firewing gets to his feet, slowly. His hand glows red, when suddenly, a white and red stream flies towards SilverBlade's head from Firewing's arm, hitting his head, then spinning around to block the stream with his energetic wings. Firewing stops the stream and looks onto his older brother, who turns around, showing that his face is even more melted from the heat. He is hardly able to see from one eye, as some of the circuitry underneath the metal is showing. He can not find Firewing, when suddenly he hears a metallic sound behind him, he quickly spins around, extends his claws just in time to block Firewing's downward slash, blocking right above his head.

SilverBlade then grabs Firewing by the wrist and throws him towards the wall again, followed by a stream of electricity, causing Firewing to grunt and groan in pain. Firewing painfully launches a plasma burst at SilverBlade, who dives out of the way. Firewing speeds towards SilverBlade before he has a chance to stand up, grabs him, and slam him against the wall. "Like I said before, brother. You will not get to Megatron!" Firewing says in a growl as he causes his hand to turn white hot and he motions to slug SilverBlade in the face, but SilverBlade is too quick, and the claws from his left hand slice off FW's white hot hand – his right. Firewing kneels down in pain. He reaches for the severed hand, but SilverBlade kicked it away. "See what it feels like to be on the receiving end of torment and pain?" SilverBlade asks his younger brother. Firewing sends a minor flame at SilverBlade to blind him temporarily, as Firewing rushes to his severed hand.

SilverBlade turns around and wipes the soot from his optics, as Firewing grabs his severed hand, and holds it close to the separation point on his wrist. It begins to glow as liquid metal-like wiring stretches from the wrist to the hand, and the wound begins to heal. Once the repair process is complete, Firewing flexes his fingers to ensure that the connections are working properly.

SilverBlade turns to face Firewing, only to be slammed by a couple of white-hot streams of lava coming at his torso. His torso showing signs of extreme heat as part of it looks melted.

SilverBlade fires a few plasma shots right at Firewing, who rolls out of the way with ease. Thinking quickly, SilverBlade sent out an electric bolt in that direction and Firewing got hit square on in the chest and doubled over. SilverBlade quickly sprinted towards FW and aims to knee him in the face, but FW, fighting through the pain, stood upright to grab SB with white-hot hands and slam him against the wall right behind himself. Firewing them delivers a strong punch to SilverBlade's head, knocking him out.

Firewing taps a button on his wrist. Seconds later, part of the wall explodes, and a flood of Predacon troops under the room, and they surround the two brothers, each of the Predacons aiming their weapon at SilverBlade.

Firewing strolled out of the room, figuring that his mindless drones would outnumber his brother.

Two of the Predacon drones lifted SilverBlade by the arms, but his eyes flicker on. He quickly grabs one drones and rips the head off, using it to smash it against the head of another drone. He grabs the body from one of them to use as a shield against a barrage of blaster fire. He digs his claw-like fingers into the metal of the lifeless body to rip out a large jagged metal piece, which is then throws it like a spear to a distant drone in the head. He extends his claws quickly to slash off the arms off of a drone, and using the arms as blunt bats against a couple of other Predacons before thrusting them into the chests of 2 more drones.

Two more drones rush at him. SilverBlade grabs the closest one, grabbing the hand of the drone and causing the drone to fire and destroy the other rushing Predacon. Silver then quickly forces the drone's arm to aim the weapon at his own head. He sent a small electrical surge into the drone's arm – just enough to over-ride the circuits and cause the arm-mounted blaster to fire at the drone's own head.

The remaining drone at the opening to the room begins to panic, seeing how the others were quickly reduced to scrap. He fires his plasma blaster in quick succession at SilverBlade. SilverBlade ducks to the side and takes out the hilt to his energon sword, activates it, and flings it at the remaining drone. While in mid-air, the energon sword fades from a glowing red to a metallic silver color, hardening into a physical sword instead of an energy type. The sword impales the drone against the wall through the mouth area.

SilverBlade calmly steps out, and Firewing observes as his brother grabs the energon sword hilt, and deactivates the blade, causing the drone to drop lifelessly to the ground.

"That wasn't even a challenge, brother. I expected more from you." SilverBlade says mockingly to Firewing. "Did you really think that pitiful amount of drones would do anything against me?"

Firewing activates his plasma launcher and fires at SilverBlade repeatedly, round after round. SilverBlade re-activates his energon blade to deflect the shots, but steps backwards back into the room from the barrage of plasma rounds. Firewing then sends a small burst of flame at SilverBlade, enough to blind him. SilverBlade tries to swipe away the smoke in front of him when he is picked up from the ground, being held above Firewing's head by his leg and neck.

Firewing prepares to throw his brother against the wall, but SilverBlade quickly squirms out of Firewing's grip, falls so that his legs wrap around Firewing's neck, gravity causes SilverBlade to move downward and them upward, using centrifugal force to swing back up, and toss Firewing into the wall with his legs.

SilverBlade lands in a crouching position as Firewing lands on his head. SilverBlade stands up and activates his claws. Firewing begins to adjust himself to a standing position, when SilverBlade rushes him, elbowing Firewing in the jaw, then spinning rapidly and kicking Firewing in the head, knocking him down again.

Firewing ignites his own energon sabre and attempts to stab SilverBlade in the stomach, but SilverBlade moves his hands down and crosses his claws. The sword is just mere inches away before SilverBlade's claws stop it.

Firewing pushes with his might, and SilverBlade pushes back equally. SilverBlade then steps back quickly and releases his claws from Firewing's blade. Firewing's arms move upward and Silver takes advantage of the momentum built up in Firewing's arms, and he kicks the hilt of Firewing's energon sword out of his grip and up into the air, where it automatically deactivates. As SilverBlade was about to catch the twirling hilt, Firewing lunges forward and tackles his brother to the ground. The hilt falls harmlessly to the ground as Firewing pins his older brother to the ground.

SilverBlade's optics glow bright red, then a red plasma blast fires from his optics and directly towards the Firewing's optics, causing Firewing to crawl away as he becomes blinded.

Firewing feels around for the hilt of his energon sword, but is unable to find it. Once his vision returns, he sees SilverBlade standing a few feet away from him, with **his** energon sword hilt, activated.

SilverBlade walks slowly towards Firewing, and raises his hands to prepare to swing the blade of the energon sword down in Firewing's neck. Firewing hears the movement and rolls over to send a small flame upwards towards SilverBlade's face, causing him to step back and turn away until his systems recover.

As Firewing's own systems recover from the optic blast, he steps towards SilverBlade and his hand glows white hot, as he prepares to blast SilverBlade with white hot fire. But SilverBlade senses this, extends his claws, leaps up, slashing at Firewing's chest, spinning, slashing again, and spins a 3rd time, slashing once more, leaving Firewing's chest and abs shredded. SilverBlade finishes with a well-placed kick to the chest, sending Firewing flying towards the wall and falls onto his side.

Firewing weakly gets onto his feet again, to see SilverBlade walking towards him. He activates his plasma blaster and fires at SilverBlade, who easily deflects the blasts one by one. Firewing fired one more when SilverBlade was in close range, but SilverBlade deflected it with his claws, and slashed Firewing's arm off at the elbow. SilverBlade moves his claws in front of Firewing's face, as he sees the claws shift from a glowing energy blades to metallic, partly serrated blades.

"Please..Silver. I'm your brother…have mercy." Firewing says weakly.

"That's exactly what I plan on doing." SilverBlade says. His optics glow bright red as he thrusts his claws into Firewing's stomach, pointing upwards. He pushes his claws deep into Firewing's body as Firewing looks at him in shock.

SilverBlade removes his claws from Firewing's body, and mech fluid pours out of the wound.

Firewing looks at his brother, as if not believing that SilverBlade didn't kill him seconds ago. "Such a Maximal..showing mercy when you have the chance to end it." He says with heavy breating.

"Think again." SilverBlade retorts quickly as his claws revert back to energy form, and he swings down at Firewing's neck, slicing his head off, but in 4 pieces.

"Sorry brother..you left me no choice." He says with a hint of sadness to his voice.

"Computer, scan Firewing. Is his flight unit still operable?"

"Affirmative." Replies the computer.

"How about his fire generation system?"

"Affirmative, but there's an eighty percent chance your body will become unstable if you integrate a secondary elemental system into your body. A Cybertronian with more than one elemental ability has never been tested." Warns the computer.

"Override limitations. Prepare to receive a secondary elemental ability."


	15. Chapter 15

Chapter 15

On the surface of Cybertron, Predacon turrets are being destroyed in rapid succession.

Inside the cockpit of one of the Maximal Fighters, the comlink activates, and Ultra Magnus' voice is heard "All Maximal fighters, seize your attacks and rendezvous back to the co-ordinates on your screen.

The remaining Maximal Fighters attempt to re-cloak as streams of plasma fire streaks through the sky near them. One of the fighters gets hit in the back, causing an explosion.

"I've been hit!" the pilot inside calls out as the aircraft can be seen descending with a trail of smoke and fire.

"Prowl!" One of the pilots watches as the craft falls. One of the Maximal Fighters dives sharply down to chase.

"Negative Sunstreaker!" Ultra Magnus commands. "We can't risk loosing any more."

"It's Prowl! I must see of I can get to him before the Predacon Drones can!" Sunstreaker pleaded.

"This is a direct order Sunstreaker. You are to return at once. Prowl is as good as dead where he is. Return at once!" Magnus stated again in a commanding tone.

Sunstreaker punched the communication console. He sees part of the cockpit fly off as Prowl stands on the seat. He then jumps out of the rapidly descending aircraft and lands hard on a rooftop.

Sunstreaker pilots his fighter down to the rooftop, avoiding the incoming streams of plasma fire from some of the remaining turrets. He looks on his screen and detects dozens of Predacon Drone signatures heading straight for Prowl.

Prowl transformers into vehicle mode and drives as fast as he can, using jump-jets to jump from one roof to another. Sunstreaker pilots his fighter in between 2 buildings. Prowl uses his jump jets to launch himself from the roof, transform to his robot mode in mid-air and land on the cockpit of Sunstreaker's fighter.

As soon as Prowl lands, Sunstreaker's fighter begins to ascend above the tall Cybertronian towers. "Computer, cloak now!" Sunstreaker commands.

"Unable to comply. Obstruction detected on roof. Cloaking system can not activate with an obstruction."

"Shit.." Sunstreaker says under his breath as he taps some controls. His fighter begins to move forward over the city, but with dozens of flying Predcon drones and the odd turret tower firing. The fighter rotates back and forth rapidly, as well as making sharp turns from side to side to avoid the shots.

A turret from below takes aim at the Maximal fighter and finally hits the aircraft's wing, completely destroying it. The fighter immediately takes a spinning nosedive. Quickly thinking, Prowl rips off the cockpit opening and rips Sunstreaker from the seat, and they both fall to the ground hard. The fighter collides with one of the communication towers, causing a huge explosion. The tower immediately crumbles.

"Magnus, Prowl and Sunstreaker are down. Both fighters destroyed." Ultra Magnus hears over the com link as he sees the fighters return and de-cloak under the protective barrier of the Protoss Arbiter's cloak field.

"First ground wave in place sir. Second wave of Starfighters are prepped and ready." Rodimus says to Ultra Magnus.

Ultra Magnus looks towards the view screen and ponders for a while. "May Primus help us." He mutters. He looks to Rodimus "Begin the attack."

Rodimus calls over to Goldbug "You heard Magnus. Send the message out to engage the Predacons."

On the battlefield, the front line of soldiers activates energy barriers to keep enemy fire from reaching the others. They begin to walk forward slowly and crossing the edge of the Protoss Arbiter's cloak field.

The Predacon ground troops immediately begin to open fire, hitting nothing but the energy barriers. The Maximal troops follow and begin to fire at the Predacons through their own energy barriers while the barriers protect the army.

From the Predacon command center, Rumble watches as more and more Maximals and their allies pour out of the cloaking field, causing the Predacons to step back. He taps at the communication console "Air Commander Starscream, send in the Predacon Seekers, now!"

Starscream flies overtop of the Predacon command center, leading countless of Predacon seekers.

"Scourge, send in the Predacon Sweeps, now!" Rumble commands over the comlink.

A few moments pass by when Scourge is followed by seven of them, and then followed by hundreds more.

Inside the Maximal Flagship, Ultra Magnus nods his head. Rodimus says to Goldbug

"Send in the Carriers."

On the battlefield, the Predacon Seekers and Sweeps converge on the Maximal army. Their weapons reveal themselves from the hulls when suddenly they see emerging from the Arbiter's cloaking field, multiple Protoss Carriers. Swarms of Protoss Interceptors stream from each of the Carriers, causing the Seekers and Sweeps to break off their attack on the Maximal ground troops to focus on the interceptors.

In the Predacon Command Center, Cyclonus and Rumble watch the holographic display of the battle.

"Lord Megatron, sir!" Cyclonus calls out to Megatron. "The Protoss have sent their carriers."

The captain's chair turns around, and Megatron looks at the holographic display. "We have thousands of Seekers and Sweeps at that location. They can't defend against that."

"Maybe in the past, but that simply isn't the case now. Look here." Cyclonus says as he uses his hands to manipulate the camera angle of the display, zooming in to see the Interceptors. "Once one Protoss Interceptor is destroyed, two more materialize. They self-replicate as well as multiply. We'll be outnumbered if this keeps up."

"Activate the holo drones. Keep all holo emitters at their maximum output." Megatron commands.

Cyclonus does a quick salute and heads over to one of the consoles.

Megatron turns to Rumble and says, "Call in reinforcements."

"From which planet?"

"All of them."

Near Washington D.C, a massive city-sized pyramid shaped structure overlooks the U.S Capitol buildings. This pyramid has Cybertronian hieroglyphics and a very prominent Predacon insignia on it, indicating this is the primary Predacon Headquarters on earth. On a balcony, Tarantulas looks over to the city-sized spaceport in the distance. Looking up he sees that the structure of the spaceport continues above the clouds. He hears a buzzing from the computers and he heads inside.

The oceans have been completely drained of every last drop of water. What remains of the once vast oceans are now replaced with multiple, incredibly deep and vast mining pits – some of them reach near the upper mantle while some have had to be completely abandoned because the upper mantle was accidently breached.

Throughout the former ocean floor, humanoid bodies lay in waste to varying degree of decomposition.

In one of the mining pits, a human male collapses and drops his energon pic. The sound of it deactivating alerts one of the guards to come over to the group.

"Get up and continue your work." The Predacon says very emotionlessly.

"I'm really exhausted.." the human says while breathing heavily, attempting to get up but failing.

"You have one more warning, **slave**. Failure to comply will result in dire consequences." The Predacon overseer warned.

The human once again tries to get to his feet, but completely collapses onto the ground again. The Predacon nods to another, and they roughly grab the collapsed human from the ground and slide a metallic collar around his neck and detach his feet from the energon chains that connect to the group of slaves. The Predacon guards turn the human to the group as the overseer's wrist lights up in a holographic control display.

"No, wait! Stop! I'm sorry!" the slave pleaded.

"Too late human worm." The overseer says coldly as he taps a few icons on the display and every human is slightly electrocuted.

"All of you stand up!" The overseer ordered as he watches the hundreds of slaves belonging to this one particular group rises to their feet.

The guards hold the male slave as the overseer walks slowly along the line of slaves. He stops at one, another male, only in his mid 30's. "Step forward."

The slave steps forward. The overseer walks some more and calls more random slaves to step forward, about 20 in total. He positions these slaves to be in a straight line. The overseer walks to the other Predacon guards and the male that collapsed earlier.

"Hold him." The overseer orders the guards, as his arm-mounted plasma blaster charges up.

"No! **PLEASE!" **the human male pleads until his voice become raw.

"Remember, **germ**, these deaths are on your hands." He says as he aims the blaster at the first slave and fires. The slave's head explodes in all directions and the body collapses.

The collapsed slave struggles against the guards that are holding him. "I'm begging, please stop!" he says with tears pouring down his face.

As his weapon charges up again and takes aim, he stops for a minute, lowering his arm and tapping some icons. A video message is played on the holoscreen.

He turns to the guards and speaks in Cybertronian. "Commander Tarantulas has informed us that Lord Megatron has recalled us. We are to take the slaves to confined quarters." He then looks at the collapsed human. He opens a compartment in his wrist and injects something into the human's arm.

Hundreds of Predacon transport vessels land on the ground and the Predacon overseers and guards rally the slaves into the transports.

In New York City, a Predacon patrol vessel flies past a partially destroyed Statue of Liberty, it's head on the ground smashed to pieces.

The buildings of the city rot in decay and have long been abandoned. The streets themselves are littered with overturned and destroyed cars; bodies in decay and skeletal pieces are all that remain of the citizens of New York City.

A small battalion of Predacon drones marches through the streets on patrol, crushing the skulls of humans that once lived.

Suddenly, some blaster shots are fired at the battalion and three Predacon troops are destroyed. The rest fan out as they search the area. A few more shots are fired from within the fallen concrete and metal at the Predacon troops. They begin to fire at the source of the shots.

A woman ducks more behind the debris and turns to her older comrade with gray hair. "Megatron's forces are too strong. We're being over run!"

The comrade turns slightly to look at the woman with his cybernetic eye. "We're not retreating! It's either victory or death!"


	16. Chapter 16

Chapter 16

The grey-haired man runs out from his cover and fires on the Predacon drones, taking down five of them.

Another earthling comes running out from one of the abandoned buildings "Come one! Follow Cable!" he yells out as he too begins to fire on the Predacons. Multiple earthlings run out from their cover to fire on the Predacons with their own blasters.

The remaining drones suddenly stop firing and are teleported away as a multi-city-block sized Predacon vessel passes overhead.

"What's happening? We couldn't have scared them away. That was almost _too_ easy." The woman says.

A square compartment opens up on Cable's bionic arm and a glass cube exits and hovers in the air. "Computer, what's happening? What are the Predacons doing?"

One of the screens on the cube lights up and projects a holographic image of the Predacon star port near Washington D.C. "A transmission was intercepted from Cybertron. Megatron has sent out a call across the Predacon Empire to transport all drones to Cybertron. Only a skeleton crew is to remain on the planets under Predacon control."

"Do you know what that means?" Cable looks at his crew. "It means that the Maximals have reached Cybertron and are trying to take it back. It means the Maximals have not abandoned Earth. Since the Maximals haven't given up on us, we shouldn't give up either. Now is our chance, we have to move quickly. Send the message out to every human and mutant you can. Tell them that the Predacons have been called to Cybertron and only some remain. Also, tell those mutants to pass along the message to whomever they find. If we are to get those tin cans off the planet, this is our one and only chance."

Inside the Predacon Citadel, Deluge is sitting at one of the consoles. He turns around to face Megatron. "Lord Megatron. The computer has finished decrypting the Maximal disc."

"What does it contain?" Megatron says as he walks over to Deluge's computer.

"We know that the Protoss are using replication technology from the Maximals in the Interceptors. Genius. But this is something entirely different." He taps some commands on the holographic controls. Schematic images and Cybertronian text appears "This is a schematic for a very advanced type of armor. I've never seen anything like this before."

"Have you been able to decipher the formulas?" Megatron asks sternly.

"The formulas are highly complex. But after doing the calculations, I suspect that these are the schematics for a self-healing or self-replicating armor. It's just not armor. This can also be used on inner components of Cybertronians. As long as the Cybertronian is alive and has energy, theoretically their whole body can regenerate in a matter of minutes."

"Can you duplicate this?"

"Not in any decent time frame, and with our resources being focused on the Maximals and their allies. Now is not the time to try to duplicate it."

"How do we defeat this kind of technology?"

"It looks like the only way to defeat it, is a consistent barrage of energy weapons. This would overwhelm the energy reserves of the user. Eventually the armor could not form."

Megatron turns to the rest of the room "Where are my drones?!"

"At least one earth hour, My Lord." Frenzy responded.

Within the catacombs of Cybertron, Wheeljack and Perceptor furiously type at the consoles to try to free to the imprisoned Maximals, Rhinox looks away from his console at another screen.

"Oh no.." Rhinox says with a heavy voice."

"What is it?" Wheeljack resonds.

"A message was sent out from Cybertron to all planets of the Predacon Empire. They are calling in for reinforcements. The instructions were to only leave a skeleton crew to maintain Predacon presence, but all Predacon drones and warships were to come back to Cybertron."

"How long until the Predacon reinforcements arrive?" Wheeljack asks again.

Various lights flash on Perceptor's head. "By adding up the time it takes to load up a near planet-sized military onto transports, and the time needed for interstellar travel, I calculate that the Predacon reinforcements will arrive in fourty-five earth minutes."

"That doesn't give us a lot of time then." Rhinox states. "We need to stop what we are doing and focus entirely on hacking the holographic drones."

Wheeljack calls out "Forty-Five minutes might not be enough time!"

"We literally have no choice. With one of us doing the reprogramming, the rest of us will monitor the code and attempt to block the security measures."

Deep under the ground on Cybertron in the catacombs, SilverBlade walks past old discarded Predacons. Human skeletons also litter the ground. He kneels to pick up one of the discarded hand held blasters.

_Still full _he thought to himself as he checked the charge on the indicator light. He stood up and resumed walking carefully as to not trigger any alarms.

He suddenly hears a faint humming – the 'powering up' sound from plasma rifles, from behind him. Without looking he aims the hand-held blaster behind him beside his head and fires at the Predacon guard, hitting him squarely in the head.

He continues to cautiously walk through the catacombs when Predacon drones appear down the hall and begin to fire at him. He swiftly ducks into a connecting hallway and watches as bright flashes of red, green and blue whip by.

"Computer, find a way around this!" he says frantically. A holographic projecting from his wrist activates and displays a three-dimensional layout of the catacombs and where he is located. A red highlighted path shows him an alternative route.

"But that requires me crossing that line if plasma fire." He says to his computer.

"The hallway you are in does not have a path leading to Megatron's throne room." The computer responds back.

"Shit. Now what?" He looks at the walls around him. _Hmm_. He thinks to himself. He activates his energy claws and begins to slice out a huge square section from the wall. After placing the section down on the ground, a section of his side opens and he reaches in for a spherical object. He picks up the wall section and carries it beside himself. As he enters the pathway of the plasma blasts, he hears the shots hitting the metal in rapid succession. He can even see red spots forming, meaning the shots are almost getting through.

He drops the spherical object when he's mid-way in the corridor. He then lets go over the metallic piece and charges down the hallway.

As the Predacon drone group approaches the hallway that Silver went down, the spherical object explodes, sending an electrical shockwave in all directions.

Deluge, looking at the schematics for the Maximal self-healing armor, is alerted to something on a second monitor.

"Lord Megatron, an EMP burst was detected."

"What is the location?" Megatron turned to Deluge, annoyed.

"Deep inside the planet. It was detected in the catacombs." Deluge responded.

"That means he's getting close." Megatron muttered to himself, but Deluge heard.

"Who?" asks Deluge.

"None of your business. Continue studying that self healing armor and get it into MY drones."

"Yes, my lord." Deluge responds and continues to study the schematics.

Megatron turns to Frenzy. "How many more physical drones can the system handle?"

Frenzy manipulates the holographic controls for a few seconds. "The antennas are at their maximum. The holo-emitters are also at their maximum. I set the drone replicators to make more as they get destroyed. The holo-emitters are shielded so we should have no problem there, lord Megatron."

Megatron nods. "I'll be in the throne room. You will not disturb me. I am leaving Soundwave in Command as Shockwave is occupied."

The Predacon personnel in the command center salutes as Megatron's image fades out.

On board the Maximal Flagship, Rodimus looked out of the windows to see multitudes of small vessels belonging to the Cybertronian allies descend to the planet. He turns to Ultra Magnus. "Do you remember the first time we went to investigate a distress signal after we retreated from Earth and Cybertron?"

Magnus watched as one of the Naboo cruisers drifted by. "I remember what we found."

"I was on the bridge of the space station, when we received a frantic call."

_"This is Federation outpost 304. The Predacons have started to attack us and our defense system is taking heavy damage. Come Help, pl.". Then static._

"I got an away team ready and met you in one of the smaller transports. When we got there.."

_The away team, led by Ultra Magnus and Rodimus, stepped into the very wide hallway to find the floor littered with dead bodies of different species and uniforms indicating the planet they were from: Naboo, Cardassia, Kronos, Tattoine, __Coruscant, Klingon_, _Human, Protoss, and Wookies. The away team also notices the__ blood splattered on the wall. _

_ The away team moves into room after room, yelling out 'clear!' after each one, indicating that no Predacons have been found._

_ They approach the door to the main bridge, which was forced open and bent. The display monitors are barely working and more bodies are found. Some drapped over the consoles while others lay on the ground. Rodimus looked over to the Captains chair to see the body of the Captain, only his head looked like it was severed by multiple shots to the neck. He looks at the body belonging to the Second in Command, which was pulled apart at the waist, as he sees the rib cage and spine in the mutilated body._

_ "Rodimus! Sir! I think I found the video logs of what happened." One of the team members called out._

_ "Put it on the main screen." Magnus ordered and the video begins to play:_

_ The main screen shows a four-way split screen of the events from four different perspectives. _

_ The crewmembers sit at their respective consoles when the screen shows Predacon vessels approaching. The Captain looks over to one console "Fire at their weapons systems first!" Multiple torpedoes burst towards the Predacon vessels, only to be met with a shield. _

_ The Predacon vessels attack immediately, hitting key weapon locations on the outpost. "Captain, Sir, they just took out half of our defences."_

_ "Shit" says the Captain. He turns to another crewmember. "Send a message to the Maximals. NOW." He ordered in a panicked tone._

_ The communications officer taps the keys on the console and begins to speak. "This is Federation outpost 304. The Predacons have started to attack us and our defense system is taking heavy damage. Come Help, pl.." As he almost finished, several Predacon troops teleports into the bridge, with their weapons aimed at the humanoids. _

_ Soon after, a large blue and gold Predacon appears before the Captain_

_ "SilverBlade." The Captain speaks softly, as he shows he is clearly frightened._

_ "If you know who I am, then you know what I do when I don't get exactly what I want. You must know where the Maximals are located as we detected a signal meant for them."_

_ "Why should I tell you?" The Captain says as he spits on SilverBlade's face_

_ "Don't tell him anything!" one of the crewmembers pleaded from the science console. SilverBlade wasted no time as he aimed his wrist-mounted plasma blaster at the human's head, hitting with pinpoint accuracy and the human's head bursts and sends blood in all directions._

_ SilverBlade looked at the Captain and says in harsh and commanding tone "That is why you should tell me everything you know. That was your warning. **Tell me where the Maximals are**!" _

_ "Go to Hell, Predacon." The Captain says as he spits at SilverBlade in contempt._

_ "Kill them all, except him. And use solid rounds, not energy." SilverBlade ordered the Predacon troops around him. The Predacon troops immediately followed the orders. The human Captain watched as one Predacon slugs Naboo officer that was Second in Command, causing him to stumble. The Predacon smacks him in the head to knock him out cold and tosses the Second in Command over to two other Predacons as if he were weightless. The two other Predacons grabs the Second in Command – one holding the torso and one holding the legs – and they pulled him in half at the waist, tossing both halves of the Naboo officer to land near the Captain. _

_SilverBlade latches energon restraints on the Captain. He grabs one of the ensigns roughly, punching him in the stomach and activating his energy claws, and sliding them upwards to the ribcage. Once the ensign body goes limp, he tosses the ensign on the console._

_Another Predacon trooper pulls a Cardassian to the end of the barrel of his blaster and fires multiple bullets through the Cardassian's body, moving upwards towards the neck, blood and pieces of organs flying out and onto the wall. The Predacon trooper then dumps the Cardassion on the ground. _

_In another area of the same room, two Predacon troopers grab onto the arms of a science officer – a Wookie. He stuggles wildly until one of his hands gets free. He uses it to grab a blaster from the Predacon and fires at its head. He grabs another blaster from the fallen Predacon trooper and begins to fire at the Predacon troops while ducking behind the console. SilverBlade gets irritated and speaks into his com unit "Send more units units in." Within seconds, more Predacon troops are teleported in and they overwhelm the Wookie easily just in pure numbers. _

_Two Predacons hold the Wookies arms up, as another aims for the Wookie. He repeatedly fires at the Wookie's stomach, going across, with blood being splattered on the wall. With each shot the Wookie howls in intense and excruciating pain. The lower half of his body eventually collapses and the Predacons drop the upper half._

"_Commander Blade" SilverBlade's com unit alerts him. He taps a button. "All humanoids are killed." He nods and turns off his com unit. He looks at the Captain. "If you value your own life, you will tell me where you sent that message." He grabs the Captains neck, and says angrily, while squeezing his throat. "**Tell me or die!**"_

_The Captain struggles to breathe, but remains speechless. SilverBlade tosses him onto the Captains chair, and fires multiple times to his neck, severing it from the body._

_He looks over to one of his Predacon troops, who aims his blaster at the console. SilverBlade orders "STOP!" The trooper backs away immediately. "Leave everything intact. The Maximals will come, and I want them to find this recording." He looks at one of the cameras directly. "The deaths of these humanoids are on your hands, Maximals. More deaths will occur the longer you hide." He then nods to his troops. They are then teleported off of the station. _

"Now the question is, Rodimus, is do we trust him?"

"SilverBlade may act like a Predacon at times. He may even look like one. But he has proven to be a valuable Maximal. Until I see otherwise, I'll continue to trust him." Rodimus responds.


	17. Chapter 17

Chapter 17

On board the U.S.S Enterprise, the crewmembers of the bridge are busy at their respective consoles, as Picard looks at the view screen at a view of the planet.

"All humanoids are in attack position awaiting orders from within the Arbiter's cloaking field." Commander Data calls out coldly.

Riker looks towards Picard. "We could lose a lot of lives, even with the Maximal's new armor, the Predacons may still have the advantage in pure numbers, plus they can create more drones faster than us."

"That may be true number one, but the human race has been fearing them for far too long. We need to end it." Picard responds. "Commander Data, send a message to all humanoid races. Begin."

Commander Data types on the console then begins to speak. "All humanoid races. Begin the ground attack."

* * *

On board the Maximal flagship, GoldBug watches the information on his holographic screen "Rodimus, Sir. The Federation Starship U.S.S Enterprise just sent a message out to the organic races to begin the ground attack."

"Thank you Bug." Rodimus says as he turns to Ultra Magnus. "Now we get to see how the armor interacts with an organic." He turns to GoldBug again. "Tell our flyers to cover the organics."

* * *

On the surface of Cybertron, the sky is filled with ariel dogfights between the Predacon forces, and the Maximals/allies forces. The Predacon flying drones continue to be destroyed as more and more flying drones appear in the sky, having been teleported there.

Protoss Interceptors consistently fly out of the hangars from the Protoss Carriers. When one Interceptor gets destroyed, 2 more come out of a carrier.

As the organic races emerge from the Arbiter's cloaking field, they are immediately fired upon by Predacon ground troops. The armor covers each soldier head to toe, and specific sections like the elbows, knees, wrists, and neck, are fully bendable, allowing the soldiers completely free movement.

The personal shield of each soldier stops the energy blasts from the Predacons.

* * *

Within the Predacon Command center, the command crew rush around the room and relay orders to the front line Predacon soldiers. Soundwave taps some controls to contact Megatron, whose head appears over the holographic table.

"We've detected the regenerative armor being used by organics. Our weapons are not effective." Soundwave speaks in his famous monotone voice.

"Send in every possible ground drone, even if the replicators need to produce faster then they are designed for. We must not allow them to gain more ground." Megatron orders sharply.

"Yes my lord" Soundwave responds back as he taps on the console and observes the holographic image of the battle. He turns his head to Rumble and Frenzy and says nothing. They know what to do, as they begin to type in commands on the console.

"Warning." The computer starts "Increasing drone replication speed by two-hundred percent may damage hardware."

Both of them say in unison "Override!"

"Override confirmed. Lifting restrictions." The computer says coldly.

* * *

SilverBlade enters a solid pitch-black room and he cannot see a thing. He reaches for the light switch and reveals a very big and very large room, with rows and rows of insect-inspired Predacon drones, each 12 feet tall and massive in size. They are all in stasis-lock.

"Computer" he whispers. "Cloaking unit status."

"The cloaking unit is partially damaged. It will only be active for a maximum of 10 minutes. I do not recommend cloaking if you are planning on fighting Megatron." The computer responds.

"What about flying?"

"Not recommended. Insecticon drones would be alerted and re-activate."

SilverBlade folds two of his wings down, and he begins his trek through the rows and rows of insecticon drones by walking in the larger spots between the drones.

* * *

Deep within Cybertron, Rhinox, Wheeljack, Perceptor and Ratchet continue to type on the consoles in an attempt to reprogram the Predacon Holodrones.

A flash of a screen caught Rhinox's optics, as he looks over at the screen. "..Slag.."

"What's the problem?" Wheeljack says to Rhinox as he continues to type.

"The Predacon's reinforcements have arrived. The first group has been connected to the servers. 10,000."

"We can't delay." Perceptor states, and the others return to their task.

"Who programmed this? This is the most difficult encryption I've had to deal with!" Rhinox exclaims in frustration.

"How are you going to tackle multiple groups, Perceptor?" Wheeljack asks.

"If we re-program each drone individually, the other drones would just destroy it and Megatron would quickly figure out what is happening. However, if we do entire battalions at once, Megatron would have less time to react." Perceptor responds back.

* * *

Above the planet, onboard the Klingon Negh'Var-class flagship, one of the Klingons at the console speaks up.

"Chancellor Gowron, censors are detecting multiple transwarp signatures. The exits are forming now."

"Put it on screen" Gowron commands. He looks at the screen to see multiple areas in space becoming very distorted.

"Open a channel to the Maximals." He says, before hearing the computer beep to indicate that the channel is open. "Are you seeing this, Rodimus?"

"Affirmative Chancellor Gowron. Have your entire fleet aim at the nearest transwarp exits. We've identified the ships travelling. They are Predacon transports, most likely delivering troops." Rodimus says.

"You heard Rodimus. Send out a message to the fleet to aim at the nearest transwarp exit and to fire when they come through." Gowron orders.

The Maximal fleet, along with their allies, proceeds to get into position and aim at the distorting areas of space. The distorted areas then rip open and multiple Predacon vessels emerge. The fleet begins to fire immediately on the vessels. The Predacon vessels fire back on the fleet, but there's many more shots being fired at the Predacon ships, than the Predaon ships are firing at the Maximals.

The Predacon transport vessels continue to head towards the planet while it is being bombarded with plasma cannons.

"The plasma cannons are not doing as much damage as we had hoped, Chancellor." the Klingon tactical officer states.

"These were not built for battle. These were built to withstand more impacts then regular vessels. Fire some photon torpedoes. Maybe that will do some damage." Gowron says.

"Torpedo loaded, ready to launch." the Klingon tactical officer says.

"Fire"

Five bright spheres are shot out of the Klingon flagship and hits squarely on the closest Predacon vessel.

"All torpedoes hit. The hull has been breached. Minimal damage to internal systems." The tactical officer says.

"Scan internally for Predacons." Gowron commands.

"Scanning for Cybertronian metals commonly used for Cybertronians. " A few seconds pass. "I found them. Aiming for that area with the torpedoes." The tactical officer says.

"Fire when ready." Gowron responds.

"Wait!" calls out the Chief engineer, looking at the screen. "An energy surge was detected from the ship. Its energy signature matches a Cybertronian teleporter."

Onboard the Maximal flagship, Goldbug looks over his monitor. "The Predacon transport vessels just teleported troops to the ground."

"How many troops?" Rodimus asks.

"Twenty Thousand, or more." Goldbug replied.

"Slag!" Rodimus slams his fists on the console. "Our guys might be overwhelmed."

"We have to trust that the regenerative armor is fast enough, or the galaxy will forever be in the grip of the Predacons." Magnus speaks up.


	18. Chapter 18

Chapter 18

Within the Predacon Command Center, Megatron watches the holographic display of the aerial battles within Cybertron's airspace, and watching the unit count increase for the Maximals.

"Release the Insecticons." Holo-Megatron bellows. Frenzy taps away at his console.

Underneath the surface of Cybertron, SilverBlade continues to slowly make his way through the long lines of deactivated Insecticon drones. He finally sees the last few rows of Insecticon drones that he has to get through, when he hears them being activated with a deep digital sounding 'beep', one by one, in rapid succession.

"Slag.." He whispers to himself as the Insecticon drones turn their heads towards him. He extends his claws and begins to slash, claw, and punch his way through the Insecticon drones towards the exit.

Deeper within Cybertron, Rhinox, Wheeljack, Perceptor and Ratchet are at the consoles. Rhinox and Perceptor try to concentrate their hacking efforts on reprogramming the Predacon drones, while Wheeljack and Ratchet are trying to free the imprisoned Maximals.

Rhinox tapped on his console to display a video feed from the ground skirmishes happening between the new drones and the Maximals and their allies. "The regenerative armor seems to be keeping up. Let's hope it can hold out until we can reprogram the drones." He looks at his primary screen again to continue his hacking efforts. "How are you two doing?"

Wheeljack's fingers are a blur across the holographic keyboard. "I'm getting there. One more firewall to bust through."

In the Predacon Command Center, Holo-Megatron looks to his screen, then to Frenzy. "Why haven't the Insecticon drones appeared yet?"

Frenzy looked at the camera footage. "They have engaged a Maximal. He's moving too quickly to get a proper read, my lord."

"Over-ride that command. Take them to the surface. This Maximal is mine." The holographic head of Megatron dissipates.

SilverBlade rips apart one of the Insecticon drones and jumps through the flying pieces. He lands on his feet and notices that the Insecticon drones begin to fly out through various doors. "Interesting.." He scans the room "Computer, direct me to Megatron's throne room, using previously known maps of Cybertron." His eyes flash and he runs towards one of the exits.

"We have a situation down here!" the Maixmal flagship receives the message from the ground.

Magnus and Rodimus look towards the holographic projection in the room, showing an outpouring of Insecticons coming out from various spots and engaging the Maximal ground troops.

The rest of the Maximal allies send in the fleet of star fighters almost immediately to engage the Insecticons while the Maximal and Organic ground troops press on towards the Predacon Citadel.

The metallic streets of Cybertron are filled with Maximals, humanoids in different designed exoskeletons based on their homeworlds (Humans, Cardassians, Bajorans, Klingons, Galactic Republic, from all planets and races), lines of Protoss Zealots and other close-combat units lead the way as the other soldiers with long range weapons continue to fire on Predacon ground troops. Predacon flyer drones are picked off from the sky as more and more of the sky fills up with Predacon holo-drones to replace the physical drones.

"Focus your weapons on the ground troops." Shockwave's voice is heard from the com systems of the Aerial Generals. They then command their own fleets to concentrate their firepower on the soldiers approaching the Citadel. The Maximal flyers, along with the fleets of their allies chase after them and continue to destroy drone after drone.

The Inteceptors from the Protoss Carriers chase the Predacon Pyramid Fighters and the Predacon Sweeps as they try to engage the Maximal ground army.

From within the Predacon Command Center, Soundwave looks at the holo-projection of the battle on the streets. He looks to the Predacons as the consoles "Release the tanks."

Down in the streets, away from the battle, sections of the metallic roads lower down to form ramps, allowing dozens of Predacon-inspired tanks to emerge, and drive towards the main battleground.

Within the Bridge of the Maximal flagship, Goldbug notices something on his screen. He zooms in on a spot and runs some scans. He is horrified at the data coming back to him. "Rodimus, this is something you must see." Goldbug swipes his hand in the air to transfer the image from his screen, to the main holo-projector in the middle of the Bridge.

"Predacon Tanks are rolling towards our troops. The scans show they will do considerable damage to the regenerative armor."

"How much damage?" Rodimus asks.

"They can take out 25 soldiers with the regen armor out in three shots. The regen armor can not regenerate fast enough to withstand a fourth shot. There are dozens of tanks out there. We will take considerable losses, perhaps the entire battalion."

"Slag. This is NOT good." Rodims says. "Contact the Protoss, have ten of their Arbiters fly-by to cover our units in a cloaking field, and to use stasis fields on the tanks."

"Consider it done." Goldbug salutes, as various crew members perform the tasks given to them.

In the skies of Cybertron, a fierce aerial battle between the Maximal Alliance and the Predacons. More Predacon Sweeps and Pyramid fighters are falling than non-Predacons, the Predacon holo-projector units are continuously at their maximum output, as well as more Insecticon and Predacon drones are pouring out of the planet.

A group of ten Protoss Arbiters, plus ten Cybertronian Starfighters meet up in the sky and fly their way towards the Maximal ground forces.

This group seems to go unchallenged, as no Predacon unit tries to intercept.

A few dozen Insecticon drones begin to converge on the Arbiters and Starfighters. The Starfighters immediately begin to defend the Arbiters from the drones.

'_We're under heavy attack!_' is heard collectively through the telepathic abilities of the Protoss on the Protoss flagship. One of them looks towards the other, older member.

'_What do we do, General Tassadar?_'

'_Carriers_'

A single Protoss Carrier begins to hover over towards the Arbiters and Cybertronian Starfighters.

As the Arbiters take severe damage because the Cybertronian Starfighters are outnumbered, the Arbiters launch spherical shapes at seven of the Predacon tanks. These spheres explode above the tanks and cover them with an electric blue shield, before the majority of the Arbiters crash into highrises of Cybertron.

"Seven stasis shields are in place." Goldbug says to Rodimus.

"That just leaves three. I hope our boys can do their job on time." Rodimus says as he looks to Magnus.

SilverBlade's energy claws slice through the door to Megatron's throne room, and he sees the throne, with the back turned towards the door. He grabs some wires coming out of Firewing's neck and tosses it at the side of the throne. He sees an arm reach down to grab the decapitated head. "He was my best General and best fighter after you became a traitor. I didn't think you would have the strength to kill your brother." Megatron's voice is heard coming from the throne.

"He is more aggressive, I am the strongest." SilverBlade replies.

"Do you have any last words before I kill you, Maximal?" Megatron asks, as the throne turns to face Silver

"One shall stand. One shall fall." SilverBlade replies, indicating that he is willing to die while fighting his former master.

"You know you can never defeat me, so why throw away your life so recklessly?" Megatron asks.

"That is a question you should ask yourself, Megatron!" SilverBlade says angrily as he activates all of his knuckle-claws.

"I'll rip out your optics!" Megatron rushes towards SilverBlade, who slashes at Megatron's face. Megatron's face looks partially destroyed but it re-forms quickly.

"Isn't it frustrating, to know that you are fighting a hologram?" Megatron mocks Silver, as he grabs Silver by the neck and tosses him to the ground.

Megatron charges his arm cannon, but Silver springs to his feet to slash at the cannon, causing it to flicker off and on, while the hologram resets.

"I can do this all day, Megatron." SilverBlade says in contempt.

"You're only delaying the inevitable. I can't be destroyed, you can!" Megatron mocks him again, as Megatron's punch lands square in Silver's face, knocking him to the side.

SilverBlade swings his claws again at Megatron, going right through the waist, only for Megatron's waist to re-form again.

Megatron grabs Silver's neck and tosses him against the wall, creating a massive dent. Silver stands up, firing at Megatron again, only for those shots to whip right through the holographic Megatron.


	19. Chapter 19

Chapter 19

Optimus Primal, SilverBolt, Air Razor, and Powerglide are escorted down a metallic hallway by a dozen Predacon guards towards the exit, and then they are forced to walk to the end of a collapsible platform that is above a deep pit with thousands of Sharkticons swimming down below.

Onboard the Maximal Flagship, Cliffjumper calls out. "Rodimus, Sir. I found Primal, SilverBolt, Air Razor and Powerglide."

"Where?" Rodimus asks as he walks over to Cliffjumper's console.

"Right here" He points to an image on his screen, which looks like a large gaping pit in the ground. "Their scans come from there. I'm also detecting thousands of older signatures matching the Sharkticon profile."

"They are being executed." He looks away, and then turns back. "I have an idea. Lock onto their signatures, but wait."

They turn to face the Judge Quintesson that is hovering on a throne on his column of energy.

The bailiff Quintesson faces the captured Maximals. "Before the Imperial Magistrate delivers his sentence, would you like to beg for your lives? It sometimes helps, but not often" he says in his scruffy mechanical voice.

Air Razor turns to Primal and attempts to whisper "I can't transform."

"Silence or you'll be held in contempt of this court!" the judge rudely states.

"I have nothing BUT contempt for this court!" SilverBolt says defiantly.

The bailiff turns around to face the Judge. "Guilty or innocent?"

The Judge says coldly. "Guilty"

The bailiff faces the Executioner Quintesson. "Feed them to the Sharkticons!" The Executioner throws the switch, and the platform collapses, causing Optimus Primal, SilverBolt, Air Razor, and Powerglide to fall towards the swarm of Sharkticon.

* * *

Rodimus nods his head a few times in slow rhythm, counting in his head. He them shouts at Cliffjumper "Now!"

Cliffjumper taps on his console quickly.

Just as Optimus Primal, SilverBolt, Air Razor, and Powerglide hit the water with a huge splash, they are teleported out of the water, and fall a few feet from the ceiling of the flagship bridge and onto the ground, along with some of the water.

"Could you have taken any longer?" SilverBolt said in protest. "We were inches away from Sharkticons!"

"You're welcome.." Cliffjumper says sarcastically.

"Remove the energon bindings." Magnus says. Two Maximals rush over and use tools to deactivate the bindings.

* * *

Wheeljack and Ratchet tap furiously at their consoles. In unison they both state "Done!" They look at one of the monitors, showing the imprisoned Maximals getting their sparks re-implanted into their bodies. Massive doors open to allow the hundreds of thousands of Maximals to rush out.

"Almost there." Perceptor says as he and Rhinox continue on their task, watching the screens while their fingers fly over the keyboards.

* * *

Onboard the Maximal flagship, Goldbug calls out "Rodimus! Magnus! Come over here, quick!."

Ultra Magnus and Rodimus run to Goldbug's station. "I'm detecting thousands upon thousands of Maximal signatures being detected coming from the surface. Even.."

"Optimus Prime.." Rodimus says as the computer displays the image of the iconic leader.

"Patch me through!" Rodimus commands as Goldbug taps on the controls.

* * *

On the surface of Cybertron, Optimus taps on his wrist as he runs.

"Optimus? This is Rodimus. Welcome back sir."

Optimus ducks an incoming blast. "Rodimus. What's going on? The last thing I remember is our own holodrones rising against us"

"The Predacons infiltrated our ranks and reprogrammed them to attack us, and successfully conquered the planet. That was a few thousand human years ago. Now they are using that same technology to create holodrones that we can't kill." Rodimus responds.

"What can we kill?" Optimus says as he fires off a few rounds from his Ion Blaster.

"There's a group of Predacon tanks near your location, which has armor that we can not penetrate with our weaponry on the ground." Rodimus says.

"I've got an idea." Optimus states as he rushes over to the massively large Dinobots. "Grimlock. We need those tanks destroyed!" He points over to the tanks in the distance.

Grimlock looks over to the other Dinobots. "Dinobots…Transform!" The Dinobots transform into their dinosaur modes and rush towards the tanks with Swoop flying above them.

Starscream sees Swoop in the air. He has a few dozen pyramid fighters dive after the flying Dinobot. He soon gets surrounded by the Predacon aerial fighters as he launches multiple missiles at the fighters. He sees Starscream come towards him in jet mode and launches another round of missiles at him, hitting Starscream.

Starscream spins out of control and crashes through one of the Citadel's windows.

The Predacon tanks fire on the ground forces of the Maximals and their allies, sending bodies and body parts in all directions.

The Dinobots rush at the tanks, with Swoop firing missiles at two of them, Grimlock using his massive mouth to bite right through one of them, Slag using his lava-breath to melt down one, Sludge uses his tail to smack one against the side of a building, and Snarl uses his size to crush his target.

* * *

As Perceptor and Rhinox type away at the consoles, all four of the Maximals receive a warning "5 Minutes left before our signature mask dissipates." Rhinox says.

"We have no time to reprogram the drones!" Wheeljack says in a panic. "If the computer detects us…"

"Nothing will happen. We just needed to get down here." Perceptor says. "Megatron wouldn't destroy this room or anything in here, because.." He points to a door with a keypad and a mech fluid extractor on it. "Through there is his spark. The door is magnetically sealed. Only Megatron, or a combination of Firewing and SilverBlade's mechfluid opens the door. The computer also detects if the spark is in danger, and teleports it to Megatron's body, which is replicated on the fly."

"So what SilverBlade told us is true." Rhinox says.

* * *

"Warning, Maximal units detected in Section 33. Warning, Maximal units detected in Section 33." The Predacon computer alerts the crew in the Predacon command center.

Frenzy looks to Soundwave. Soundwave says "Gas them!" Frenzy immediately begins typing at his console.

* * *

Wheeljack hears something as he looks up to the vents. The metallic chairs begin to dissolve. "Slag!" Rhinox says as he quickly bolts to the door just as it was about to close and he holds it open. The door constantly pushes at Rhinox's body.

"We've got to trigger the replication sequence!" Wheeljack says, as he, Perceptor and Ratchet aim their blasters at the spark chamber mentioned earlier and begin to fire a barrage of plasma rounds while walking backwards slowly towards the door as the metal on their bodies show slight signs of disintegration. Wheeljack fires his single shoulder-mounted missile at the spark chamber's door while firing his plasma blaster.

The missile hits and Rhinox yells "That's enough, time to go!"

The others continue to fire as they reach the exit, and they each go through it one at a time by going under Rhinox's arm. Once the last one exits, Rhinox rolls onto the ground. Some of the metal of the bodies of the Maximal scientists have been dissolved in various areas. Mech fluid is dripping onto the ground.

"Now, we've got to get to the surface." Rhinox says as they begin to run down the catacombs.

* * *

In Megatron's throne room, SilverBlade and Megatron are still fighting. SilverBlade slashes at Megatron's holographic form, only for Megatron to grab onto SilverBlade's arm and toss him into the wall.

"Getting tired yet, Maximal scum?" Megatron insults SilverBlade as he grabs Silver again and throws him across the room.

The lights in the throne room flash red as the computer states the alert "Explosion detected in Sector 33. Repeat, explosion detected in Sector 33. Spark in danger. Initiating replication and teleportation sequence."

"Not now!" Megatron protests, but his holographic form stands up straight. It begins to 'fade' away, from the feet first, as the physical body 'fades' in, feet first.

Once Megatron's physical body is finished forming, a flash of light streaks out of the chest, indicating the spark is now inside the new body.

"How, how?" Megatron looks at his hands, trying to make sense that he is no longer immortal.

"How does it feel, **your highness**?" SilverBlade says mockingly. "To know that you are not a god?"


	20. Chapter 20

Chapter 20

While Wheeljack, Ratchet, Perceptor and Rhinox are running down the catacombs of Cybertron, their bodies show greater signs of degradation. The holes created by the acidic gas grow slowly.

"My legs are barely functioning." Wheeljack says.

"We have to get to the surface. We'll be teleported to safety." Rhinox says, trying to reassure the others.

Ratchet glances at his hand as he runs, seeing it's heavily damaged and showing internal cables and circuitry, which is also showing signs of acidic damage.

"You have to admit, Megatron sure knows how to pick the most deadly forms of defense. This acid bonds to Cybertronic metal. It'll take a miracle to get rid of this stuff." Rhinox says as the group runs.

Inside the Predacon Command Center, Ravage looks up from his console and speaks in his famous Russian accent "Maximals are down in the catacombs."

Soundwave looks over to Predacon panther. "Activate drones."

Ravage types at his console and an alert pops up on the screen. "Negative Soundwave, all physical drones are fighting on the surface, and the holo-emitters were deactivated to concentrate holographic drones on the surface.

"I'll go!" A Predacon says from the door way with his extremely scruffy voice.

The rest of the Predacons turn to the door way, seeing Dinobot. Soundwave nods to him and Dinobot runs out of the room.

* * *

Inside the hallway of the Citadel, Starscream gets to his feet and looks at the window he crashed through.

He hears the sounds of blaster fire, clanging, and the sharp hum of energon blades swinging in the air. He walks down the hallway until he sees a partial open doorway. He gets on his knees and looks through the opening to see SilverBlade and Megatron fighting.

SilverBlade swings his claws at Megatron, who deflects the slashes by blocking SilverBlade's wrist with his own wrists.

"You will lose, Megatron. Give up now!" SilverBlade demands from Megatron.

Megatron laughs manically as he slugs SilverBlade in the stomach then kicks him away. "You Maximals are all alike. You are always challenging me to the death. One thing hasn't changed; no one has beaten me."

"Tonight is going to be different!" SilverBlade yells, running to Megatron, and slashing at his stomach. Megatron steps to the side, grabs SilverBlade by the neck and tosses him into the air, and firing at him with his arm cannon, missing a couple of times but eventually hitting once.

SilverBlade falls but gets on his feet, looking pretty damaged, but he is determined to defeat Megatron, even if it means he sacrifices himself. He bolts over to Megatron and slashes wildly, with Megatron using his arm cannon to deflect the slashes. SilverBlade then kicks Megatron in the stomach, then jumps and spin-kicks Megatron's head and watches Megatron fall to the ground, caught off guard.

SilverBlade quickly reaches down to grab Megatron, but Megatron jumps to his feet and delivers and uppercut to SilverBlade's jaw, and body checks him into the wall, creating a large indent.

SilverBlade dislodges himself from the wall and powers on his foot jets, and grabs Megatron's shoulders on his assent; he summersaults in the air and slams Megatron down onto the throne, knocking it off of its hinges.

Megatron activates his own jets and ascends into the air to slam his fist against SilverBlade's midsection. SilverBlade falls to the ground as Megatron descends.

SilverBlade gets on his feet, and takes out two light sabers from his body and activates them. Megatron drops his arm cannon, reaches for his two light sabers and activates them.

SilverBlade is the first to react as he charges at Megatron and swings. Megatron blocks the incoming slash easily. SilverBlade swings upwards towards Megatron's stomach and Megatron again blocks with his own saber. Megatron swings down and SilverBlade crosses his sabers above his head to block Megatron's swing. SilverBlade jumps up and kicks Megatron in the head, causing Megatron the stumble. SilverBlade quickly lands and sweep-kicks at Megatron's feet, causing him to fall backwards.

SilverBlade quickly jumps and raises his arms to prepare to slash straight down on Megatron, but Megatron uses his jets to quickly rise to meet SilverBlade with a harsh kick to the stomach. SilverBlade looses his aiming from the kick and falls to the side, landing in a feral position.

"You fight more aggressively than I could have imagined, Silver. I swear you were a Predacon." Megatron says with a smirk on his face.

"You will regret the day you built me." SilverBlade says as charges at Megatron once again and tries to use his two sabers as giant scissors to cut Megatron's head off, but Megatron uses his two sabers to defend this attack and separate SilverBlade's sabers from each other.

Starscream still watches from the partially opened door as SilverBlade and Megatron continue to fight.

* * *

The four Maximal scientists step off of an elevator and they can see the opening to the surface, but they see a figure standing in the way, holding a sword that spins in one hand, and a rotating blade in the other.

"Four damaged Maximals against me? This is hardly a challenge." Dinobot scoffs as he acts like this fight is beneath his skill.

Rhinox is the first to react as he retrieves two chain guns from his back, though weakly, and begins to fire at Dinobot. Dinobot adjusts the speed of the rotating blade to act as a shield for the rapid fire as he walks towards the Maximal group.

Wheeljack is the first to jump at him, and Rhinox stop firing for fear out of hitting a fellow Maximal. Dinobot is knocked over and the rotating blade is thrown out of his hand as he and Wheeljack his the wall. Wheeljack repeatedly punches Dinobot in the head until Dinobot throws Wheeljack off of him. Dinobot reaches for his rotating blade when Perceptor fires at it and disables it.

Dinobot gets up and looks pissed. He fires his optic beams at Perceptor to send him flying against the wall, heavily damaged. Dinobot dives for his spinning sword but Wheeljack holds it in his hands. "You'll have to kill me for it."

"It'll be my pleasure!" Dinobot says as he fires optic blasts at Wheeljack, who dives out of the way

In Megatron's throne room, SilverBlade and Megatron both fire on one another, hitting each other and falling over. Both bots are heavily damaged.

* * *

Starscream busts in and readies his arm-mounted blaster, pointing it at SilverBlade.

"Kill him Starscream, and you'll be reinstated as my Second in Command." Megatron says to the flyer.

Starscream then points his blaster at Megatron's head. "My true calling is to lead the Predacons, not just simply be taking orders from you. You've failed oh mighty Megatron."

SilverBlade gets to his feet and activates his knuckle claws. Starscream hears the hum of the energy and turns his head to SilverBlade, preparing to fire. Megatron sees this opportunity to use his cannon to fire at Starscream chest, totally blowing off one of his arms.

"Megatron?! Megatron?!" Starscream attempted to plead for forgiveness but Megatron again fires at Starscream, this time with a different beam setting. Once Starscream is hit, his body turns into shades of black and grey, and crumbles into dust.

Megatron stands over SilverBlade and prepares to fire another. "Like I said, you will never defeat me."

SilverBlade jumps up and slashes at Megatron across the stomach with his claws multiple times. Megatron then grabs SilverBlade's arm and prepares to fire at point-blank range to SilverBlade's head. SilverBlade electrifies his body quickly so that Megatron is stunned and lets him go. "Who said anything about defeating you? I'm here to **kill** you!" Silver says as he sends another electrical bolt right at Megatron, hitting squarely in the chest.

Megatron falls to his knees. SilverBlade coldly says "You shouldn't have killed your own Commander. You did have the man advantage. Not that it would help much.

Megatron slowly gets up "You think some electricity can take me down? I've lived for tens of thousands of years. You will not kill me." He takes aim with his fusion cannon. SilverBlade leaps out of the way of the blast, hearing the wall behind him get destroyed. SilverBlade jumps again out of the way of another shot and into the air. Megatron aims carefully and hits SilverBlade in the chest, sending him at the wall. SilverBlade collapses onto the ground following by part of the wall partially burying him.

Megatron stands mid-way between SilverBlade and the opposite side of the room. He raises his fusion canon and aims it at the pile of ruble that SilverBlade is buried under. "You've failed." The canon begins to power up when he hears the wall behind him get destroyed. He turns around to see Optimus Prime hopping off of Swoop's dinosaur mode. Swoop transforms in mid-air and lands beside Optimus.

While Megatron has his attention focused on Optimus, SilverBlade eventually crawls out of the rubble, his torso heavily damaged, his face half-melted off. His computer, internally gives him a warning. "Warning. Power regulation unstable. Secondary elemental chip unstable. Using elemental or weapon reserves will lead to a 90% chance of spark failure. Seek CR tank."

Optimus and Megatron sprint to each other, with Optimus swinging his fist at Megatron's head fist, connecting with his head and making Megatron stumble. Optimus swings his fists at Megatron's chest and stomach a few more, connecting each time, eventually sending Megatron to the ground and knocking the fusion canon out of his grip.

Megatron gets to his feet and also takes swings at Prime, hitting Prime in the face and stomach, and then slamming his knee into Prime's stomach, causing Prime to double over onto his knees.

Swoop started to raise his blaster, but Prime stopped him. Megatron pulls out a hand held blaster and aims it point-blank range at Prime's head. Prime, being the least damaged bot there, quickly swings his fists right up at Megatron's head, incredibly hard, sending Megatron back half way across the room.

Prime stands up and aims his ion blaster at the heavily damaged Megatron.

Megatron moves onto his hands and knees and begins to crawl slowly towards his fusion canon. He looks up at Prime pleadingly. "No more Optimus Prime. Grand me mercy, I beg of you!"

SilverBlade, from the opposite side of the room, activates his energy claws and gets onto his knees and nods to Prime. Megatron is oblivious to this as he looks pleadingly at Optimus Prime. Megatron quickly grabs his fusion canon, but before he could activate it, Prime fires at Megatron, hitting in the arm.

"Not today." Prime says coldly as he fires shot after shot at the damaged Megatron, forcing Megatron to step back more and more Megatron turns around as his front side shows heavy damage. Megatron was about to turn around, but is fired on yet again, pushing his body towards SilverBlade.

SilverBlade sees the opportunity to punch through Megatron's shoulder. Megatron yells out in pain as SilverBlade's hand goes through his body.  
SilverBlade begins to electrify his body, and his computer alerts him again. "Warning, elemental use detected, spark in danger. Stasis lock imminent." SilverBlade yells out "override!" as Megatron desperately, and in a panic, attempts to free himself from SilverBlade's grip, only for SilverBlade to trap Megatron more by tightening his grip. "All power to elemental chip." He cries out as the electricity intensifies, and now a mixture of flame and lava begins to seep out of the electricity. Megatron once again tries to punch and knee and jab at Silver, trying to escape.

"Silver! Stop! You'll kill yourself!" Prime calls to SilverBlade

"Do it Prime! Just fire!" SilverBlade yells back, determined to finish this once and for all.

Optimus Prime's face fills with sadness, as he knows this is the only way. He sets the Ion Cannon for full power and fires right at Megatron, hitting him in the spark chamber, further pressing Megatron against SilverBlade's electrified and lava-coated body.

"You're finished, Megatron!" SilverBlade says as he activates the claws on his other hand and jabs it right into Megatron's spark chamber. Megatron lets out a sharp scream from the intense pain of electricity, fire, lava and energy weapons all hitting his internal circuitry and spark. Megatron's optics fade to black fade off as electrical energy surges from their sparks, building rapidly and wildly.

"Optimus!" Rodimus calls him over the comlink. "We're detecting serious energy buildup near your location. It is going to explode. Get out of there now!"

"But..SilverBlade can still be saved!" Optimus tried to run over to him, but Swoop, in bot form, grabs Prime and pulls them out of the hole in the wall. "No, wait!" Prime says as they fall from the side of the building and begins to fly.

A few seconds later, a high energy energon explosion occurs from the throne room, sending a spherical shockwave in every direction.

* * *

Just as the explosion happens, all of the Predacon holo-drones stop moving. All of the physical drones power down.

On the surface of Cybertron, some of the physical drones head inside an entrance, and bring out Dinobot, with his hands in energon bindings. The Maximal scientists; Ratchet, Rhinox, Pereptor and Wheeljack are carried out on hovering metallic stretchers.

Optimus looks up at the Citadel. "Find SilverBlade." He says over the comlink.

Hundreds of Maximals and Maximal drones converge on the Citadel and a few are teleported down from the Command ships.

Rodimus begins to clear off some rubble by his feet and notices something purple. It isn't SilverBlade, but he digs the purple object out of the rubble. He picks it up, noticing it is Megatron's head. He walks out to the ledge of the hole, and holds up the severed head of Megatron. "He is destroyed!" He yells out. He hears everyone below cheer and holler out in triumph.

* * *

In the Predacon Command center, Soundwave sees that his leader is destroyed. He looks around to the other Predacons. "Retreat. Retreat!"

The Predacons begin to destroy the consoles and attempt to make their way to the door, but it shuts suddenly. Ultra Magnus, General Tassadar, Gold Bug and General Martok are teleported in, aiming their blasters at the Predacons.

* * *

On the surface, the remainder of the Predacon Generals are quickly taken down and put into energon bindings.

Different planets, from Kronos, to Tattoine, to Coruscant, to Earth to Auir, the citizens of the galaxy celebrate with fireworks and tearing down statues of Predacons in their cities.

* * *

On Cybertron, Ultra Magnus and other Maximals escort the remainder of the Predacons into jail cells. He looks over to Cyclonus coldly. "You will be here for a long time."

In an intact medical bay, the various parts of SilverBlade are arranged in a CR tank, all connected together properly. His optics are still off and his spark chamber doesn't glow.

Prime walks into the bay and looks at SilverBlade, then to Protectorbot First Aid. First Aid looks at the scans, and shakes his head.

"Let me know of any change." Prime says.

"Yes Sir"

The End


End file.
